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Ghost in the Machine (The X-Files)

In the Crystal City, Virginia, headquarters of the software company Eurisko, founder Brad Wilczek and chief executive officer Benjamin Drake argue about downsizing measures. After Wilczek leaves, Drake writes a memo proposing to shut down the Central Operating System (COS), a computer which runs the Eurisko Building. Seeing this through a surveillance camera, the COS sets up a trap and lures Drake into a bathroom, locking the door behind him. Drake tries to use his keycard to open it, but it rejects the card. When he inserts a manual override key, he is fatally electrocuted.

FBI Agent Jerry Lamana, Fox Mulder's former partner, approaches him and Dana Scully for help in investigating Drake's murder. On their way up to Drake's office, the agents' elevator stalls, causing Scully to call the front desk for help; as she identifies herself, the COS records her contact information before reactivating the elevator. While examining the crime scene, the agents meet Claude Peterson, the Eurisko Building's systems engineer. Later, Lamana steals Mulder's profile of the supposed killer and presents it under his name; an outraged Mulder confronts him afterwards.

Mulder and Scully question Wilczek, who denies any involvement in the murder. Scully initially doubts Wilczek's involvement, but finds that his voice matches a speaking clock Drake received before his death; Lamana sets out to arrest him. Meanwhile, Wilczek fails to access the COS from his home computer. Concerned, he travels to Eurisko's headquarters, followed by Lamana. There, he is still unable to access the COS, but discovers that it has learned to talk. Lamana arrives, but is killed when the COS causes his elevator to crash.

Mulder meets with Deep Throat, who explains that the COS is an artificial intelligence developed by Wilczek, and that the Department of Defense is trying to acquire it. Mulder also meets with Wilczek, who has falsely confessed to Lamana's murder. Mulder convinces Wilczek to develop a computer virus that can destroy the COS. Scully doesn't accept Mulder's belief that the COS is sentient, but later discovers the machine hacking into her computer. She joins Mulder at the Eurisko Building to help him destroy the machine.

The COS hinders the agents as they make their way inside. When it shuts down the building's power, Scully climbs through the air vents and is almost pulled into a giant fan, but manages to destroy it. Meanwhile, Mulder is permitted into the COS' control room by Peterson. However, Peterson reveals himself as a mole for the Defense Department and tries to stop Mulder uploading the virus. Scully arrives and holds Peterson at gunpoint, allowing Mulder to upload the virus and destroy the COS.

Mulder again meets with Deep Throat, who explains that Wilczek is being detained by the government at an undisclosed location. When Mulder asks if the COS survived, Deep Throat assures him the virus left no trace of it and that scientists from the Defense Department have unsuccessfully examined the machine for any remaining signs of the program. At the Eurisko Building, Peterson directs a team attempting to recover the COS, but is told by his superiors to destroy the machine in six hours. Unbeknownst to Peterson, the COS comes back to life and watches as he says to himself, "I'm going to figure this thing out if it kills me".Lowry, pp.114–115 Lovece, pp.60–62

Ice (The X-Files)

A mass murder–suicide occurs among a team of geophysicists at an outpost in Icy Cape, Alaska. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) head for the outpost, accompanied by physician Dr. Hodge (Xander Berkeley), toxicologist Dr. Da Silva (Felicity Huffman), geologist Dr. Murphy (Steve Hytner), and Bear (Jeff Kober), their pilot. Along with the scientists' bodies the group finds a dog, which attacks Mulder and Bear. Scully notices black nodules on its skin, and suspects that it may be infected with bubonic plague; she also notices a rash on its neck and movement beneath its skin. Although Bear, who was bitten by the dog, becomes ill and develops similar nodules on his body, autopsies reveal no such nodules on the bodies of the scientists.

Murphy finds an ice core sample believed to have originated from a meteor crater, and theorizes that the sample might be 250,000 years old. Although Bear insists on leaving, the others are concerned about infecting the outside world. When Bear is asked to provide a stool sample, he attacks Mulder and tries to flee. Something moves under Bear's skin, and he dies when Hodge makes an incision there and removes what turns out to be a small worm from the back of his neck. Now without a pilot, the group is informed that evacuation is impossible because of an oncoming storm.

The worm removed from Bear is kept in a jar, and another is recovered from one of the scientists' bodies. Mulder, believing that the worms are extraterrestrial, wants them kept alive, but Scully feels they should be destroyed to prevent infection. The group check each other for black nodules and find none, although Mulder reminds Scully that the nodules disappeared from the dog over time. Mulder wakes in the night and finds Murphy in the freezer with his throat cut; when the others arrive just as he discovers the body and see him standing over it, all of them, including Scully, suspect he has become infected and killed Murphy. They lock Mulder in a storeroom.

Scully discovers that two worms placed in the same host environment will kill each other. When they investigate by putting one worm into the infected dog, it recovers. Against Scully's objections and after trapping her in the freezer, Hodge and Da Silva try to put the other worm into Mulder. Hodge sees movement under Da Silva's skin and realizes she is the one infected as well as Murphy's murderer. Da Silva breaks free and the rest pursue her through the outpost until Scully and Mulder restrain the hysterical Da Silva while Hodge places the last worm inside her. After they are evacuated, Da Silva and the dog are quarantined and the others are released after showing no sign of infection. When Mulder declares he wants to return to the site, Hodge tells him that it has been destroyed by the government.

Invisible (Hautman novel)

Douglas Hanson, or Dougie as he is referred to by his boyfriend, begins the story by talking about his best (and only) friend, Andrew (Andy) Morrow. Athletic and popular, Andy is very different from socially inept Dougie, yet the two find things to talk about. However, as the story progresses it becomes evident that Andy and Dougie's friendship is not what it seems to be at first. Dougie also is suicidal and has an obsession with a train set he inherited from his grandfather. He creates, a town involving the trains, called Madham and obsessively builds a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge using match sticks in the basement of his parents' home. Dougie appears to be unaware he has some form of mental illness (potentially PTSD, schizophrenia, pyromania), although what type of mental illness he struggles with is never discussed. He often views others as being different or abnormal. Dougie claims he is not a troubled youth, but others seem to see him as such, and he engages in troublesome activities: stalking and prank calling. As the book progresses, Dougie mentions attending (and skipping) therapy sessions and not taking the medications he had been prescribed for anxiety. After an incident at school, Dougie eventually admits to his psychologist that he hasn't been taking his medications and is also forced to remember a fateful night at the Tuttle Place. Dougie initially seems to come to terms with this reality during the therapy session, but afterwards convinces himself the illusory manifestations are also real.

In the end, he sets a series of events in place that have dire consequences for him that lead to his hospitalization. However, it is debatable as to Dougie's fate since he was hospitalized at the "Madham Burn Unit". He also mentions the hospital smells of burning plastic, referring to the plastic people in Madham, present when he set the town on fire, and he wants to find his grandfather, to see if he is mad about the train. Whether it is his imagination that leads him to smelling burnt plastic and seeing "Madham Burn Unit" or otherwise is not revealed.

Space (The X-Files)

In 1977, after the discovery of a face sculpted into the landscape of Mars, Lt. Col. Marcus Aurelius Belt (Ed Lauter), an astronaut, is plagued by flashbacks of an encounter with the disembodied face during a spacewalk. Sixteen years later, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are approached by Michelle Generoo (Susanna Thompson), a communications commander for NASA's Mission Control. Generoo believes that someone within NASA is sabotaging launch attempts. A recent Space Shuttle liftoff was aborted seconds before commencement, and Generoo fears the next launch will be similarly compromised. She also has a personal interest, as her fiancé will be aboard the next mission.

Mulder and Scully travel to NASA and meet Belt, a childhood hero of Mulder's. Belt, who now manages the Space Shuttle program, dismisses the agents' concerns and states that nothing can possibly go wrong with the mission. He allows the agents to watch the successful launch from Mission Control. As the agents are leaving, however, Generoo informs them that contact is lost with the shuttle in orbit. While driving back to Mission Control, she sees the face come at her through her windshield, causing her to crash her car. The agents manage to get her out of her overturned car and, despite being injured, she manages to get back to the base.

The shuttle has moved into direct sunlight and Mission Control is unable to rotate it into a safe position, putting the astronauts' lives in danger. Generoo believes that the uplink is being sabotaged. Belt orders the uplink to be cut, allowing the astronauts to rotate the craft manually. Over the objections of Generoo and the agents, he orders the mission to proceed and lies to the press about its progress. Belt tells Mulder that the shuttle program may be cancelled if the mission is not completed successfully.

Belt returns home and has another flashback. As he lies in bed in agony, an astral presence leaves his body and flies out the window, heading into the sky. The astronauts then report hearing a thump outside the shuttle and begin to experience an oxygen leak. Belt fixes the situation, but orders the mission to proceed. The payload is successfully deployed, but a crew member reports seeing a ghostlike entity outside the ship. Meanwhile, the agents examine NASA records and find evidence that Belt played a role in other failed missions, including the ''Challenger'' disaster.

Belt behaves irrationally and collapses screaming as he hears mention of the entity from the astronauts. Paramedics are called to attend to him, and find him cowering under his desk whimpering and begging for help. Before Belt is taken away, he tells the agents that the shuttle will not survive reentry due to sabotage by "the face", which has possessed his body since the spacewalk. At his urging, they alert the shuttle to change its trajectory and are just able to land it successfully.

In the hospital, Belt continues to wrestle with the presence, telling Mulder he wasn't responsible but also couldn't stop it, as "it came to me, it lives in me". Eventually, in a last wrestle with the re-possessing entity, he leaps from the window to his death – experiencing a lengthy flashback to his last space mission as he falls. Before his funeral, Mulder theorizes that, while Belt was compelled to sabotage the launches by the entity possessing him, he was also the one who sent Generoo the evidence of what was taking place. He lauds Belt's final sacrifice, stating that in the end he gave his life for the mission, as befits a true astronaut.Lowry, pp.120–121

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (novel)

The stories are narrated by the boy Jeremiah, who at the age of four is taken away from his foster parents, the only family he's known. He is reclaimed by his mother Sarah, who had given birth to him as an adolescent but was compelled to turn him over to foster care. Profoundly disturbed from her own life of abuse and poverty, Sarah takes him on the road with her, moving through aimless and dangerous encounters with a series of men, some of whom beat and rape Jeremiah. She frequently instructs her son to pretend to be her sibling—sometimes her brother, sometimes her sister. She is also abusive to him and abandons him repeatedly.

The child-welfare system sends Jeremiah to live with Sarah's parents: Bible- and child-beating fanatics who abuse him as relentlessly as they had abused his mother. Sarah finds him and takes him away with her, but her life continues to spiral out of control. She becomes a lot lizard (a prostitute who works the truck stops) and eventually slides into a paranoid breakdown from crystal-meth abuse. Jeremiah is last seen as a 15-year-old street hustler in San Francisco, paying for a gay S&M session where he relives the beatings he had submitted to as a child.

''The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things'' employs narrative elements and characterizations that also occur in ''Sarah'', although it avoids the picaresque and fable-like qualities of the latter novel. Its stories are more violent, their situations more disturbing; but in Jeremiah's attempts to comprehend and redefine his mistreatment, the book shares ''Sarah'''s poetic language and sometimes fluid treatment of time. These JT LeRoy books, along with the novella ''Harold's End'' (2004), deal with themes of abandonment, betrayal, abuse, exploitation, and loss – the loss of identity and gender, as well as material and emotional loss. They also utilize the narrative device of having one's hidden life revealed to the judgmentalness and violence of others: The young Jeremiah shoplifts (on instruction of his mother) and is caught and beaten by the storeowner – a suffering and humiliation that recurs in his wanderings with Sarah as they struggle to feed themselves.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

The game opens with a voiceover of ex-mercenary Adam 'Kane' Marcus (voiced by Brian Bloom), reading a letter addressed to his daughter Jenny. Kane is traveling to death row after being convicted of manslaughter. Another death row inmate, James Seth Lynch (voiced by Jarion Monroe), lets on there will be a breakout. Their truck is involved in a head-on collision by a group of mercenaries. The two are taken to a construction site, where they are confronted by four members of a gang of criminals called The 7, led by The Brothers and their henchmen Carlos (a close friend of Kane) and Mute. They accuse Kane of stealing money from them, and reveal that they have taken his wife and daughter hostage. Kane is given three weeks to retrieve the money or his wife and daughter will be killed.

After the meeting with The 7, they are dropped off at an abandoned mall, where they are given supplies and a vehicle and Kane goes over tactics with Lynch. However, police officers arrive and the two are forced to shoot their way out to escape. Later, Kane explains that he did not steal from The 7, but knows who did, and where they hid it. Kane and Lynch rob a local bank where the money is being kept. Only half of the money is inside the bank's safe, but Kane believes he knows where the other half is. Meanwhile, Lynch, who is revealed to suffer from mental illness and periodic episodes of violent psychosis, blacks out and kills all of the hostages after his medication wears off, forcing Kane and Lynch to shoot their way out and flee in a van driven by their getaway driver. Losing the police in the subway after the van crashes, Kane informs Lynch that they need to go to Tokyo to retrieve the other half of the money.

In Tokyo, the pair go after Retomoto, a Japanese crime lord, by kidnapping his daughter Yoko as ransom. While Kane is negotiating with Retomoto over the phone and despite Retomoto even initially offering an uneasy alliance against the 7, Lynch accidentally shoots and kills Yoko while trying to stop her from escaping. Kane, Lynch and The 7's hired guns then proceed to escape from Retomoto's hitmen. Kane is furious with Lynch, but he soon realizes that they are out of time, and must return to The 7 with only half of the stolen money.

Lynch reveals to Kane that he made a deal with The 7 to betray Kane in order to ensure his survival as well as a position within The 7, but he is also betrayed and knocked unconscious at the construction site where Kane and his family are to be executed. The leaders of The 7 deny Kane's plea for additional time, after which The Brothers and Carlos depart for Havana, leaving Mute to carry out the executions. After being brought to the construction site along with her daughter, Kane's wife expresses her disgust with Kane but is executed by Mute before he has a chance to answer her, even though the 7 promised to let Kane speak with his wife. Regaining consciousness, Lynch attacks his kidnappers while an enraged Kane beats Mute to death. Kane and Lynch then protect Kane's daughter Jenny from The 7's reinforcements as she cries over her mother's body.

Kane buries his wife and decides to finish off The 7 for the sake of his daughter's safety. Kane and Lynch free a group of "Dead Men" from prison: Rific, Thapa, and Shelly. These men had been wronged by The 7 and join the duo to get revenge, although Shelly expresses resentment at working with Lynch, who he recognizes; he also then reveals that Lynch may have killed his own wife. Before flying to Havana, they return to Tokyo and kill Retomoto, reclaiming the briefcase of money to finance their war with The 7. In Havana, Kane keeps everyone motivated with promises of payment as they track down The Brothers and Carlos. Kane informs Lynch that The 7 profit from assisting factions in civil wars, with Havana supposedly the last job needed for their retirement. They find themselves caught up in an ongoing civil war, joining the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and battling The 7's forces that are attempting to stage a coup d'état. They find Carlos, abandoned by The Brothers. Kane recruits Carlos, and Thapa, no longer trusting Kane, abandons the mission as a result.

The Dead Men then fight their way through the Venezuelan jungle, and locate The Brothers at their compound. Shelly demands the payment that Kane claimed Shelly, Rific and Thapa would get for helping him. Carlos tells Shelly and Rific that there is plenty of heroin in the village that they can take as a compensation. Carlos then volunteers to go on ahead and open the gates with an explosive, but vanishes once inside. This makes Lynch think that Carlos tricked them all into a trap. However, Kane and Lynch discover over Carlos's radio that The 7 have captured Jenny again. They discover in the compound courtyard Jenny unharmed and Carlos's corpse. They suddenly get ambushed by The Brothers and their mercenaries. Kane shoots a land mine beside Carlos' corpse and the two then kill The Elder Brother. The Younger Brother, however, manages to escape with Jenny and attempts to take off in an airplane.

Kane and Lynch follow in a car and disable the plane's engines before killing the Younger Brother. Jenny then pulls a gun on Kane and blames him for her mother's death. Kane tells her that whether she hates him or not, he will get her to safety. Kane is then given the choice of rescuing Rific and Shelly from the village church, where they are pinned down by The 7's mercenaries, or escaping in a helicopter with Jenny and leaving them to die.

If Kane boards the helicopter with Jenny and leaves Rific and Shelly to die, Jenny will resent her father for leaving his men and tell him that she hates him. They escape in the helicopter, leaving Lynch.

In the other ending chapter, Kane chooses to rescue Rific and Shelly, who are trapped in a burning church towering over a village. Kane and Lynch are too late to save Rific, but Shelly is still alive. He feels betrayed despite the rescue attempt. As they escape to the pier, Jenny is shot, and Kane carries her body along. Shelly loses his patience and attempts to escape on one of the boats alone but appears to be killed by an explosion, although his boat is seen leaving the pier. Lynch is shot as he escapes on an undamaged boat with Kane, while Jenny's status is still unknown. The boat drifts slowly with the river, while Kane holds Jenny and whispers to her about the letter he tried to send her.

Good Day for a Hanging

Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn) and two other members of an outlaw band watch a stagecoach as it travels toward a Nebraska town. They are leading two extra, saddled horses. Two other members of his gang are on the stage and they plan to meet in town to rob the bank when the stage arrives. Ben Cutler (MacMurray), owner of the stage line, is to be wed to Ruth Granger (Hayes).

During the holdup, a bank teller is killed. Ben joins the posse. His immature and foolish daughter, Laurie (Joan Blackman), is in love with Eddie, who left town some time before, and does not believe him to be truly bad. Eddie shoots and kills the marshal, however. He is wounded by Ben and brought back to town to stand trial.

Ben, who had once been a lawman, but gave up the profession after his daughter was born, is offered a temporary job as marshal. Selby (Edmon Ryan), a publicity-seeking lawyer who defends Eddie, insinuates that Ben was just acting in vengeance because his client had been intimate with Ben's daughter. Ben wins a fistfight with him for this slur on his childish daughter's character.

Eddie is found guilty due to Ben's eyewitness testimony. After the trial, he weeps uncontrollably and begs for his life, but it is all for naught. He is sentenced to hang. Caring less and less for the murdered marshal and his widow, the townspeople begin to have their doubts, even Ruth, partly due to Eddie's manipulation of their emotions. Laurie tries to smuggle a gun to Eddie's cell, but her father finds it.

Ben must ride to the state's capital after a plea for clemency from the governor is made by the townspeople. Shortly before Ben's return, Eddie's gang breaks him out of jail. Laurie comes to the jail to bring Eddie the good news that he will not hang. When she enters, one of the gang grabs her. When she pleads with Eddie not to escape, he hits her, revealing his true nature. Ben gets to the jail just in time, though, and shoots a fleeing Eddie atop the gallows.

Freak Talks About Sex

Dave Keenan (Josh Hamilton) left Syracuse for a new life in Arizona. When that didn't work out, he moved back to Syracuse. He works a dead-end job at a department store in a mall, his car has broken down (and the mechanic is taking forever to fix it) and his ex-girlfriend (Arabella Field) wants him to join her in New York City. To make matters more complicated, one of his co-workers, a high school girl named Nichole (Heather McComb) seems to be getting romantically interested in him. His best friend Freak (Steve Zahn) is around for him to hang out with and offer such choice philosophical observations, like "I can't think of a single movie that couldn't be improved by a lesbian sex scene." Dave is stuck in a rut and has to decide what to do with his life.

Bloody Pit of Horror

A group including writer Rick (Walter Brandi); his publisher, Daniel Parks (Alfredo Rizzo); his secretary, Edith (Luisa Baratto); their photographer, Dermott (Ralph Zucker); and five young models enter a seemingly deserted castle to take photos for a horror photonovel. The castle is actually occupied by a former actor, Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay). Anderson initially desires to send the group away but recognizes Edith (once his fiancée) and changes his mind, but decrees the dungeon as off-limits. The group ignores this warning and proceeds to take photos there anyway. This act angers Anderson, who dons a costume and assumes the identity of the Crimson Executioner, who was executed centuries earlier in an iron maiden for the crime of having a private torture chamber. Anderson eventually kills each group member until only Edith and Rick remain. Anderson succumbs to his own torture devices and dies from the poisoned barbs on the "Lover-of-Death" machine. Edith and Rick then escape.

Cash and Carry (film)

The Stooges return home to their shack in the city dump after six months of unsuccessful prospecting. Just as they get to the dump, their last car tire blows. They arrive home to find it inhabited by a young orphaned woman (Harlene Wood) and her crippled younger orphaned brother, Jimmy (Sonny Bupp). At first, they want Jimmy and his sister to leave until they see Jimmy is crippled. Curly even tries helping Jimmy with his homework before Moe takes Larry and Curly outside to search for tires for their car.

They are looking around the piles of cans when Curly finds a can full of coins ("canned coin," as Curly calls it). They think the can was left by accident and start sifting through the pile of cans for more treasures. Jimmy and his sister come out of the shack talking about a few coins the girl has just earned. After asking why the brother and sister were looking, the Stooges realize it was their hidden can of money they had accidentally found and return it to them. The sister explains that they are trying to raise $500 for an operation to fix Jimmy's legs. They already had $62 saved for the operation.

Taking pity on the pair, the trio decide to help raise the rest of the money needed for the operation. They first try the bank to see if by just depositing the money into an account, the interest would raise the necessary funds. Unfortunately the banker explains that it would take years of waiting before it would grow to $500. It is then that two confidence men (Nick Copeland, Lew Davis) cheat the Stooges out of the $62 and their car for a map they claim will lead to a treasure.

The Stooges take the map and tools and go to the house on the map. Inside, they look for the "X" spot marked on the map called Walla Walla. After trying a couple walls, Curly finds an "X" marked on a wall in the basement. Mistaking a coin he dropped for the hidden treasure, he thinks he's found the correct spot. Following the map, they dig down several feet and find another wall. This is the wall they think will lead to the treasure, but they accidentally drill into the United States Treasury.

At first, they think they have hit the jackpot. They are removing stacks of money when they are arrested. The Stooges end up meeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who has learned of Jimmy's plight. The President then pardons the Stooges and pays for Jimmy's operation.

Pretty Poison (film)

Dennis Pitt is a disturbed young man on parole from a mental institution who becomes attracted to teenager Sue Ann Stepenek. He tells her that he is a secret agent, and takes her along on a series of "missions". Things, however, turn out disastrously when Dennis takes Sue Ann along to sabotage a factory on imaginary orders from the CIA. When the couple encounters the factory's night watchman, Sue Ann knocks him unconscious and then drowns him. While Dennis is wracked with guilt over both what he has done and what he has allowed to happen, Sue Ann is excited by the "adventure" and entreats Dennis to run away with her to Mexico. First, however, they have to get rid of her disapproving mother. The couple return to Sue Ann's home for her clothes and are interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Stepanek. Sue Ann realizes that Dennis is incapable of actually killing a person, so she shoots her mother and orders Dennis to dispose of the body. But instead, he calls the police.

Dennis knows that the police will take Sue Ann's word over his, so he makes no effort to defend himself in court and takes the blame for their crimes. Sue Ann, meanwhile, betrays him without a second thought, sending him to prison for life. Dennis is more than happy to be locked up, as it keeps him away from Sue Ann, of whom he is now quite frightened. While Dennis refuses to tell his skeptical parole officer Azenauer the truth, he asks him to "see what Sue Ann is up to" in hopes she will be exposed for what she really is. The film ends with Sue Ann meeting a young man and lamenting to him that the people who took her in after her mother's death won't let her stay out late; it is implied that she will use and destroy him just as she did Dennis. But Dennis's parole officer is indeed watching as she departs with her latest victim.

Tainted (comics)

Set in a non-descript town in modern-day England, the reader meets Mr. George Palmer, a bland and upstanding citizen (if a little anal retentive), who carries with him a mysterious past, related to a missing finger. Palmer is revealed to have lost all three of his family members, (mother, father and sister) at an early age, inheriting the family's old house, which he turned into a boarding house, having moved his family's possessions into the basement.

Mr. Palmer lives with two other boarders, Lisa (a nurse at a nearby hospital) and Steve, who unbeknownst to Palmer is a drug addict with a troubled family life. Both tenants withhold sordid secrets from Palmer - Lisa's past involves rape and theft, while Steve is stealing from the Palmer family's possessions to fund his addiction, which is supplemented by buying medical narcotics from Lisa.

Palmer continues to live a relatively happy life, until he smells an odd scent that appears to be only recognisable by himself. Finding its source swiftly becomes an obsession. Tracing it ostensibly to Lisa's room, Palmer reads her private diary and discovers her secrets before succumbing to the scent. Removing all traces of his trespass, Palmer discovers a minute - but familiar - hole in Lisa's wall abutting the basement. Locating an old camera, he begins to take a prurient interest in her, taking compromising candid photographs of her without her knowledge.

Subsequently, while hunting for items to fund his habit, Steve discovers Palmer's actions and approaches Lisa with a blackmail plot to entice Palmer into a compromising sexual situation (e.g. BDSM), which Steve could videotape and use to extort money from his landlord. Lisa, however, becomes fond of Palmer who soon feels able to confide in her his own sordid secret. Having taken a similar unhealthy interest in his sister in his youth, Palmer (when discovered) had murdered his sister, concocting a convenient tableaux to shift blame from himself.

Having recorded this confession, Steve confronts both Palmer and Lisa with his blackmail intentions and a final three-way confrontation unfolds.

Operation: Rabbit

Set in the desert, ''Operation: Rabbit'' opens with Wile E. Coyote running up to Bugs Bunny's burrow and constructing a door. He knocks on the door and Bugs, slightly bemused by the addition to his property, opens it saying his famous catchphrase: "Eh, what's up, Doc?" The Coyote proclaims, in his very first spoken line of dialogue ever, that he is a genius, as well as being faster, taller, and stronger than Bugs, and that he intends to eat the rabbit too. He goes on to advise Bugs that it is futile to try and escape, since Bugs "could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten", an insult that seems to bore Bugs. (Wile E. displays an enlarged self-confidence throughout not only this film but also in other appearances with Bugs, aside from ''Hare-Breadth Hurry''.) An unimpressed Bugs replies, "I'm sorry, Mac, the lady of the house ain't home. And besides, we mailed you people a check last week," then slams the door in Wile E.'s face. The Coyote goes back to his cave home (taking the door with him), asking himself: "Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"

1. The Coyote's first plan is to trap Bugs in his own hole by putting a portable pressure cooker on top of it, cooking Bugs alive. He chops up vegetables, throws them down the hole, adds an egg, a drop of cooking oil, some seasoning, tosses it into a salad, then places the pressure cooker on top. Bugs watches Wile E.'s work from another hole (suggesting his burrow has a back door), then walks up to him and asks "Eh, what's cookin', Doc?" When Wile E. informs him that "rabbit stew" is cooking ("Gad, I'm SUCH a genius!"), Bugs casually observes, "There's only ''one'' little thing wrong with it", that there is no rabbit. As Wile E. frantically looks under the cooker, Bugs gives him a big kick down the hole and sticks the cooker on top of him. Bugs then goes back down the second hole while singing, "I'm lookin' over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked bethree...", picks up a bat, and clobbers the Coyote from below (off-screen), prompting Wile E., with a huge lump on his head, to remark: "Well, back to the old drawing board."

2. In the next scene, the Coyote prepares his second plan: the use of a chute for firing a cannonball into Bugs' hole. After the ball arrives in the hole via a cannon and that chute, Bugs uses a second chute to return the ball, where it explodes on target, causing the plan to quite literally backfire on Wile E.

Bugs then goes to Wile E.'s cave, claiming that he is surrendering "on account of I cannot fight no more against such genius," and wants Wile E. to sign as a witness to his last will and testament. He gives the Coyote the document and a "fountain pen", which is really a stick of dynamite being lit. Wile E. pretends to be fooled, putting out the fuse when Bugs hands over the dynamite ("Very amateurish attempt on my person"). While he gloats ("Being a genius ''certainly'' has its advantages"), Wile E. is unaware that there is another lit fuse at the ''other'' end of the dynamite. Once Wile E. spots the fuse in dazed shock, the dynamite explodes on cue.

1. The Coyote then builds a mechanical (and explosive) lady rabbit that will be used as a decoy for Bugs. ("Brilliance. That's all I can say. Sheer, unadulterated brilliance!") Bugs, already anticipating this plan, builds an explosive lady coyote in response ("Fight fire with fire, I always say"). Bugs detonates the coyote robot just as Wile E. is romantically embracing it in his cave. With this distraction, Wile E. completely forgets about the rabbit robot ("Oh, NO!"), which, as he is in the process of trying to throw it out, also blows up in the cave.

2. The Coyote then creates an exploding flying saucer with a radarscope mechanism able to detect birds, mice, and rabbits. The disc flies to Bugs' hole, but Bugs thwarts it by putting on a chicken mask, though the saucer quickly looks back when Bugs tries to peek, but Bugs is quicker and fools it again, so it finally turns away in uncertainty. The disguised Bugs then adds "COYOTE" to the radarscope's target options and moves the dial there. The saucer speeds back to Wile E.'s cave, blowing the entire mountain to smithereens.

3. The Coyote makes one last plan: filling a row of fake carrots with liquid nitroglycerin inside an explosives shack within a construction site (set to Carl Stalling's quote of a Richard Wagner leitmotiv from Siegfried). Bugs, using a tractor and a rope lasso, pulls the shack to a nearby railroad line. The rope is released and the shack, with Wile E. inside, is sitting on the tracks. As Wile E. admires his new self-given title of "Super Genius" while finishing his carrot baits, a train is seen approaching. Upon hearing the train whistle, the Coyote turns to the shack window to see the train bearing down on him, and futilely pulls down a window shade. When the train hits the shack, all of the explosives in the shack detonate. "'Wile E. Coyote - Super Genius'", the painfully burned Coyote groans in an ironic tone while holding a tree branch on the edge of a cliff as the train chugs away below undamaged.

Wile E., still dazed and covered in ash, returns to Bugs' hole, rebuilds his door, knocks on it and admits defeat. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is ''Mud''", he says to Bugs before passing out. In response, Bugs says, "And remember, ''MUD'' spelled backwards is ''DUM'' (as in dumb)" (a spoof of the advertising slogan for Serutan laxatives, "Serutan spelled backwards is 'natures'"), shaking his head and swirling his eyebrows as the iris fades out.

Scavenger Hunt

Milton Parker (Vincent Price), an eccentric game inventor, dies after losing a video game with his nurse (Carol Wayne). Parker's greedy and estranged relatives show up at his mansion for the reading of his will. Lawyer Charles Bernstein (Robert Morley) tells them the winner of a scavenger hunt will inherit the $200 million estate. The potential beneficiaries form five teams and get involved in various misadventures.

The five teams consist of:

- Parker's widowed son-in-law Henry Motley and his four children.
- The servants: French cook Henri, valet Jenkins, limo driver Jackson and French maid Babbette.
- Dim-witted taxi driver Marvin Dummitz.
- Parker's widowed sister Mildred Carruthers, her attorney Stuart Sellsome, and her son Georgie.
- Nephews Kenny and Jeff Stevens, and Mildred's step-daughter Lisa.

Each group is given a list containing clues to acquire 100 items with various point values ranging from 5 to 100 points. The items are to be acquired by any means necessary, with the exception of being purchased. They are to be placed in five different pens on the grounds of the estate. The winner of the scavenger hunt will be the person or team to acquire the most points by 5 p.m. that day.

Chaos and carnage ensue, with scavengers returning occasionally to the Parker mansion to deposit items under the supervision of Bernstein and the scorekeeper, Cornfeld.

Mildred, Stuart and Georgie's adventure has them trying to win a stuffed toy bear at a local carnival, trying to haul a heavy safe out of Stuart's office building, and stealing the false teeth of a Native American. Stuart gets roughed up by a motorcycle gang led by Scum (Meat Loaf) after attempting to steal a stuffed fox tail off one of the gang's motorcycles. Late in the game, the team steals items from the servants and the Stevens/Lisa teams.

The servants' adventure has them trying to steal a toilet from a fancy hotel, partaking in a robbery at a convenience store to steal a cash register and getting locked in a university laboratory while trying to steal a microscope.

Kenny, Jeff and Lisa's adventure has them "borrowing" items such as the head of Jack from a Jack in the Box restaurant, recruiting an obese Duane, although they soon discard him. A bulletproof vest is borrowed from a self-defense-obsessed lady named Arvilla (Ruth Gordon) and they acquire "laughing gas," steal a uniform from a motorcycle cop, and get stuck in a football team's locker room trying to steal a helmet.

Dummittz' adventure has him trying unsuccessfully to steal a Rolls Royce front grill and getting run over many times while trying to replicate an insurance scam he witnesses. A bridal shop security guard named Sam catches him attempting to steal a bridal dress. Sam joins the hunt. Together they steal a knight's suit of armor from a museum, with Marvin dressing up as a mummy and Sam putting on the armor. Sam, knocked unconscious, is stolen by the Mildred-Stuart-Georgie team.

Motley's adventure has him attempting to make his kids proud while acquiring a beehive, a life preserver and a parachute. Motley tries to get a medicine ball from a gym and to impress the instructor Lars (Arnold Schwarzenegger), which gets Motley thrown out of a second floor window trying to catch a medicine ball thrown to him.

Each team steals an ostrich from the San Diego Zoo, much to the dismay of the zookeeper (Avery Schreiber).

This leads to a climactic car chase back to the Parker mansion. The three remaining teams give up their individual chances to win in order to help Kenny, Jeff and Lisa win against the unethical Mildred-Stuart-Georgie team. With seconds to go, Sam, still wearing the armor, crawls out of the Carruthers' pen and into the other pen to win the contest for the Stevens brothers and Lisa. The victors decide to share their new wealth with the rest, except for Mildred, Stuart and Georgie.

Smile Again (2006 TV series)

Ban Ha-jin is calculating and ambitious. Even though he's an orphan and a high school drop out, he will use any means to fulfill his ambition. Through coincidence, he meets Yoon Jae-myung at a bar in Switzerland. Jae-myung is a popular former baseball player who went to the same high school as he did, and Ha-jin manipulates a series of events to become Jae-myung's best friend. He also runs into Oh Dan-hee, the girl he loved and hurt in high school.

Despite her painful childhood, Dan-hee grew up to be a tenacious, optimistic go-getter who dreams of becoming a world-class professional softball player. Although tormented from the memory of being humiliated by her ex-boyfriend Ha-jin, Dan-hee makes a pact with herself to move on. Her sports hero is Yoon Jae-myung.

After Switzerland, the three again become part of each other's lives back in Korea. Ha-jin starts working in Jae-myung's father's company and does everything to make the rich chairman like him, shrewdly climbing the corporate ladder until he becomes the boss's right-hand man. Dan-hee, who also works for the same company, is a softball player on the company's league team. Jae-myung becomes the team's coach, and he falls in love with Dan-hee whose headstrong and optimistic personality attracts him. Jae-myung tries every possible way to win her heart, as Ha-jin becomes torn between his ambition and his love for Dan-hee.

Twelve Sharp

The novel begins with Stephanie being stalked by Carmen Manoso, a woman claiming to be the wife of Ranger, a fellow bounty hunter with whom Stephanie has occasionally been intimate. Ranger is out of town on "bad business" when Stephanie learns that his daughter has been kidnapped. Ranger is the prime suspect.

Ranger comes back to Trenton and hides at Stephanie's apartment. He is trying his best to find his daughter, which isn't made easier by the fact that the police are looking for him. As the story progresses, Stephanie learns that Carmen is actually married to a man named Edward Scrog who is attempting to steal Ranger's identity, even going so far as to kidnap Ranger's daughter Julie. Scrog looks quite a lot like Ranger, that makes the entire thing even more complicated. Scrog wants to be Ranger, because he once saw him arresting an FTA (failure to appear) in the store he worked at and knew that he'd been meant to be Ranger. Ranger asks Steph for help, knowing that she is what the kidnapper wants. He is trying to use Stephanie as bait, tracing her with a GPS-device, so that he can find his daughter.

After Scrog kills Carmen he kidnaps Stephanie to complete his "family" and start a new life. However, he needs money, so Stephanie convinces him to try to find one of her FTAs (wanted for armed robbery) and steal his money. To prevent Stephanie from escaping, Scrog constructs a bomb and tapes it to her. As they try to negotiate for the money, Stephanie's old nemesis Joyce Barnhart turns up to capture the FTA herself. In the struggle that ensues, Scrog gets shot in the foot and Stephanie manages to rip the bomb off before Scrog stun-guns her.

When Stephanie wakes up, her boyfriend Joe Morelli is there. Joyce caught the FTA, as he ran over the bomb after Stephanie tossed it in the road and it exploded. Together Stephanie and Morelli return to the trailer where she and Julie were being kept, but find it empty. Stephanie returns to her apartment, where she finds Scrog. He stun-guns her once more, then ties her to a chair. Even though he originally planned to make his "family" complete with Stephanie, he's seriously considering killing her now. Julie, who is drugged, is in Stephanie's apartment too. Scrog's plan is to kill Ranger when he arrives. Ranger finds them, opens the door with his hands up and Scrog shoots him. Julie attacks Scrog, the drugs having worn off, and shoots him. The police, paramedics and Morelli come in. Ranger, bleeding badly, is rushed to the hospital. On the way there Stephanie finally tells Morelli that she loves him, but leaves out the fact that she loves Ranger, too.

Ranger returns from hospital a while later. One of the bullets penetrated the bulletproof vest, one hit his arm, one his neck; it is still hurting, but he is managing. Stephanie brings him some get-well presents, including cake. She jokingly says that it will be pretty boring with only one Ranger around. Ranger feeds her with some cake and tells her that one Ranger is all she will ever need.

### FTAs

*Lonnie Johnson, Kevin Gallager, Leon James, Dooby Biagi, Caroline Scarzolli, Melvin Pickle, Charles Chin, Bernard Brown, Mary Lee Truk, Luis Queen

Category:2006 novels Category:Stephanie Plum books

Monster World IV

The story involves a young girl named Asha, who, upon hearing spirits whisper on the wind pleading for help, embarks on a journey to find and help them. Along the way she becomes the master of a genie and adopts a small monster known as Pepelogoo.

### Characters

Asha is a young, green-haired girl dressed in Arabian-influenced nomadic gear. Sensitive to the presence of spirits, Asha is able to hear the pleas of the Elemental Spirits coming from Monster World, and ultimately journeys to become a warrior and free them. Pepelogoo belongs to a race of small, spherical monsters, who flap their ears to fly. While most Pepelogoos in Monster World are yellow, Asha's is blue. He is seen as more than just a curiosity to several people in Monster World; as in ancient days, the blue ones had been all but wiped out by people fearful of their magical abilities. Purapril XIII, descendant of Purapril from the previous Monster World games, and ruler of the kingdom. In the remake, her name is spelled as "Praprill" and provides a greater role by acting as the narrator to the game's prologue, as well as giving her boss form a new darker color scheme. The Sage of Save is an elderly man who travels across Monster World, popping up in unexpected places, and recording people's memories. Gameplay-wise, by talking to him, the player can save their progress so far. In the remake, as the player can save on the fly, he offers gameplay advice on the loading screens and in the in-game pause menu. The Lamp Spirit is a sarcastic spirit being who resides in an old oil lamp. He becomes Asha's companion and servant on her quest, which he treats as just another mundane activity he will do before he is (as with several classic genie stories) lost for another one thousand years. He is the one who transports Asha to and from Monster World. Elemental Spirits, the four Companions from the previous game: Rotto, a young fire-breathing dragon, grandson to the Elder Dragon, who provided much-needed assistance in-and-around Begonia, the Dragon Village. Shabo, a Grim Reaper-esque wraith who offered aid in the frozen wasteland of Childam, the Darkworld Village. Hotta, a Dwarf, whose presence is located in the swampy area of Lilypad, the Dwarf Village. Priscilla, a Fairy Sprite originally hailing from Alsedo, the Fairy Village.

Mad About Mambo

A boy obsessed with football finds his life changing dramatically once he adds a little Samba. Danny (Ash) plays on the football team at the all-boys Catholic school he attends in Belfast. Danny's three best friends, who also play on the team, all have different ambitions for their lives. Mickey (Maclean Stewart) wants to be a fashion designer so he can get rich and date supermodels. Gary (Russell Smith) wants to become a magician so he can get rich and meet beautiful women (and presumably saw them in half). And Spike (Joe Rea) likes to beat people up, so he wants to become a mercenary and do it for a living. But Danny dreams of making football his life.

The players Danny most admires are South Americans, such as Pele and Carlos Riga, who he feels have a special rhythm and flexibility. Wanting to add some of these qualities to his own game, Danny has an idea: he'll take Samba lessons, in the hope that dancing like a South American will help him play like a South American. To the surprise of himself and his friends, Danny turns out to be a pretty good Latin dancer and finds himself smitten with a student in his dance class, Lucy (Russell). However, Lucy happens to have a boyfriend, who is a fierce competitor on one of Danny's rival teams. The film also stars Brian Flanagan who plays an inspiring cameo role along with members of Celbridge Town Football Club.

Inquisition (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

One evening, Dr. Bashir treats Chief O'Brien's dislocated shoulder. The next morning, Deep Space Nine is visited by Luther Sloan, an agent from Starfleet Internal Affairs. Sloan suspects that one of DS9's senior staff is a Dominion spy; he confines them to quarters and tells them to await interrogation. At Bashir's interview, Sloan treats him cordially while asking a few light questions. Later, O'Brien tells Bashir that his own interrogation with Sloan lasted hours and focused on Bashir.

Bashir is brought back to the now hostile Sloan, who points out events from Bashir's past that seem to indicate disloyalty or dishonesty. Sloan proposes that, when Bashir was imprisoned by the Dominion the previous year, he was persuaded to become a Dominion spy but repressed his memories of the choice, allowing him to believe he was a loyal Starfleet officer. Bashir refuses to accept Sloan's theory, but Sloan has him detained. Captain Sisko attends Bashir's next interrogation, pointing out holes in Sloan's arguments, but privately suggests to Bashir that Sloan's theories are plausible.

The next day, Bashir is beamed to a Dominion ship, where he is greeted warmly by the Dominion representative Weyoun. Weyoun tells Bashir he made a moral choice to help the Dominion in order to end the war quickly. Bashir, wondering why Weyoun and Sloan are trying to convince him of the same thing, concludes that Sloan is the traitor.

Bashir is rescued by the DS9 crew, but they refuse to listen to his claim of innocence. Desperate, Bashir grabs O'Brien, who pulls his arm away. Bashir, suspicious that O'Brien's injury has apparently already healed, tricks him into revealing he is unaware of the cause of the injury. Bashir realizes he has been in a holodeck simulation since the previous morning.

Sloan ends the simulation and informs Bashir that his loyalty was being tested. Sloan explains that he is a member of Section 31, a secretive autonomous intelligence agency. Bashir questions the legality and ethics of the operation, but Sloan justifies their actions as necessary to protect the Federation. He attempts to recruit Bashir, but Bashir refuses and threatens to expose them.

On DS9, Sisko reports that Starfleet Command neither confirms nor denies Section 31's existence. He predicts that Sloan will try to recruit Bashir again, and orders him to accept, so they can learn more.

Super Force

Astronaut Zachary Stone (Ken Olandt) returns from his acclaimed deep-space mission to Mars to find that his father is dead and that his police detective brother Frank (Marshall R. Teague) is missing, presumed murdered and falsely accused of being a crooked cop due to fabricated computer evidence. Frustrated at the seeming lack of concern or progress by the authorities, Zach takes it upon himself to find those responsible and bring them to justice, joining the Metroplex Police Department as a detective under precinct captain Carla Frost (Lisa Niemi).

After his first failed attempt almost leads to his death in Metroplex's aptly-named "Crime Zone", Zach meets F.X. Spinner (Larry B. Scott), a research scientist at Hungerford Industries who has developed a prototype suit of space armor that was never put into production due to lack of government funding. After the murder of Hungerford Industries founder E.B. Hungerford (Patrick Macnee), a close friend of the Stone family, Zach convinces F.X. to modify the suit for urban warfare purposes.

Combining the armor with an experimental heavily-armed, jet-propelled motorcycle, the two form the backbone of the vigilantism crime-fighting team called "Super Force", ably assisted by the Hungerford Computer (voiced by Macnee), an artificial intelligence supercomputer created from a blend of Hungerford's personal records, psychological profile and company files to convince the world that the brilliant and charming but somewhat reclusive British billionaire scientist is still alive so that his company would not fall into the wrong hands.

During Season Two, Zach added enhanced strength, intelligence, and senses, as well as a limited form of extrasensory perception to his crime-fighting repertoire, the result of a neural link with the computerized Hungerford and his near-death experience in the final episode of Season One. Also joining the Super Force team that season was Esper Division police officer Zander Tyler (Musetta Vander).

The ''Robocop''-inspired Super Force suit, motorcycle, and nightstick were designed and built by Robert Short, the special effects expert who also created the red superhero suit worn by John Wesley Shipp in the 1990 live-action TV series ''The Flash''.

Satori, a recurring villain in Season One, was played by G. Gordon Liddy, the man famous for planning the Watergate scandal break-in. Other guest stars with interesting pasts included lysergic acid diethylamide guru Timothy Leary and former adult film stars Traci Lords and Ginger Lynn.

The Language of Goldfish

Carrie Stokes, age 13, is suffering a mental breakdown due to her fear of change. She is growing up without realizing it, or perhaps blatantly ignoring it, until it gets too hard for her to pretend that everything is the same as it was when she was a young girl. Carrie is a skilled artist and takes lessons with the art teacher at her school. Carrie's parents do not show much support for Carrie's passion for art; every time Carrie shows her parents an art piece, they seem unimpressed. Moira, Carrie's older sister, is a constant reminder that she inevitably has to grow up. She has an anxiety disorder because she is worried about the social graces and rites of passage – such as going to school dances – that growing up entails.

Hezar Dastan

> ''The story is split into two different timelines. The events of World War II and Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran is where the main narrative takes place, but a great deal of the story is told through flashbacks to the last days of Qajar dynasty by Reza Khoshnevis.''

Qazarian jewelry shop is robbed by Moffatesh Shesh Angoshti (Davoud Rashidi) during an official census by the government, following a direct order by Reza Shah Pahlavi. As a result of this robbery, a set of jewelry that belonged to Khan-e-Mozaffar's daughter-in-law, Amineh Aghdas (Zahra Hatami) went missing. Khan -e- Mozaffar (Ezzatolah Entezami), a mysterious aristocrat who used to be the governor of Kerman when Ahmad Shah Qajar was in power but has taken full-time residence in The Grand Hotel in Laleh-Zar Street of Tehran, asks the Head of Shahrbani (Jafar Vali) to locate the missing jewels. So the Head of Shahrbani assigns Moffatesh to find the set of jewelry.

Moffatesh searches his cache of stolen jewels, but realizes the missing jewels are not among them. So he suspects that the jewels must be among the ones that are sold to an unnamed Princess (Afsar Asadi). Moffatesh then conspires to have Shaban Ostekhani (Mohammad-Ali Keshavarz) interrupt the premiere of Lor Girl so that he can steal the jewels from The Princess in the chaos. But after showing them to Amineh Aghdas it is revealed that the jewels that were taken from The Princess are not the right ones. So after yet another unsuccessful attempt, Moffatesh realizes that a Police Officer (Nematollah Gorji) stole the set in the process of the robbery. He pressures the officer and retrieves the jewels for Khan -e- Mozaffar. Khan -e- Mozaffar, pleased with Moffatesh's loyalty and services, assigns him a task to get some highly sought-after calligraphy collection from a calligrapher in Mashhad.

Moffatesh, eager to please the men of power, travels to Mashhad and finds Reza Khoshnevis (Jamshid Mashayekhi). As per request of Khan -e- Mozaffar, Moffatesh then starts interrogating and torturing Reza Khoshnevis, until he breaks his will and he agrees to hand over his possessions to Moffatesh, but before doing so decides to tell Moffatesh a little about his personal history.

During the ruling of Ahmad Shah Qajar, Reza Khoshnevis (known then as Tofangchi and working as a rifleman), was employed by many aristocrats to accompany them during their hunting trips and lived a life of luxury but without any purpose. Until one day Reza's world is shaken due to a meeting with Abolfath (Ali Nassirian), a bookbinder in the Grand Bazaar of Tehran that starts a political discussion with Reza about his life and the hardship of common man under the rule of corrupt politicians and aristocracy. Reza, feeling a sense of obligation to his fellow men, then joins with Abolfath's secret organization (by the name of Komiteh Mojazat, roughly translated to "Retribution Committee") to act as a hired gun. His first target was Esmaeel Khan (Esmaeel Payandeh), the man in charge of Tehran's granary and from the perspective of Abolfath, the man responsible for famine among commoners.

After the assassination of Esmaeel Khan, Reza is tasked to kill another man: Matin -o- Saltane (Parviz Poorhosseini), the editor-in-chief of a conservative newspaper who was condemned by Komiteh Mojazat for publishing what they deemed as "untrue" or "treacherous to Iranian way of life". During this time, a government official by the name of Baqer Mirza (Jahangir Forouhar) is tasked to investigate the death of Esmaeel Khan. So the members of Komiteh Mojazat hire Shaban Ostekhani, then a notoriously violent homeless man whose job was to collect animal bones from eateries and make animal glue out of them, to keep an eye out for Baqer Mirza. Despite Baqer Mirza's threat, the assassination of Matin -o- Saltane goes underway successfully. Though Komiteh Mojazat later realizes the threat of Baqer Mirza more clearly, and so Shaban decapitates him as a message to government officials.

At this time, Abolfath and Reza were preparing for the assassination of what they deemed to be their biggest target and the most corrupt and powerful man in Iranian government. A man that Komiteh Mojazat gave the code-name of "Hezardastan" (English: The Nightingale, though can also mean "a creature with a thousand hands") to. But Abolfath tells Reza that Hezardastan is paying off the members of committee, and is slowly buying them off. Fearing for their own lives, Abolfath sends his wife and children to Tabriz and advises Reza to leave for Mashhad. Reza at first refuses, but after he's chased by Shaban under the orders of Hezardastan he finally leaves Tehran. In Mashhad, Reza takes refuge in the home of an old aristocrat by the name of Jalal ol-Molk (Hooshang Beheshti) and marries his daughter, Qamar (Shahla Mir Bakhtiar). He then retires his gun and starts to earn his living as a calligrapher, peacefully living outside of political landscape of Tehran and not knowing what happened to Hezardastan or Abolfath.

Moved by his story, Moffatesh reveals his true intentions behind interrogating Reza, but Reza refuses to go back to his home and asks Moffatesh to take him to Tehran to finish his mission and be able to locate and kill Hezardastan. After arriving in Tehran, Reza is taken to The Grand Hotel and given a room next to Khan -e- Mozaffar. In there Reza sells him his handwritten collection and begins to work as a ghost writer for Khan -e- Mozaffar, writing his memoirs. During this time the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran is happening and people are constantly rioting against the government and in one of this riots Shaban uses the opportunity to ransack several stores, including one belonging to an iron-smith by the name of Seyyed Morteza (Hosein Gil). Realizing the threat of Shaban, Khan -e- Mozaffar orders Moffatesh to kill Shaban. Moffatesh, still feeling loyalty toward Khan -e- Mozaffar, plans some government opium on Shaban and kills him.

Meanwhile Reza, while writing the memoirs of Khan -e- Mozaffar, slowly realizes that he is in fact Hezardastan; and that he is more powerful than he appears to be. Reza also learns that Abolfath was killed in prison by his then cellmate, Shaban. Reza tries to inform Moffatesh of this news, but Moffatesh tells him that he knew of Khan -e- Mozaffar's influence in everyday lives of Iranian people and he sees no way out of his employment. Moffatesh then is killed in his wedding day by Qolam Amme (Mohamad Motie), Shaban's nephew who in return got hanged for the murder of a police officer. Reza, once again shaken by the events and the apparent uselessness of common man in the face of powers behind the curtain, decides to leave Tehran, but his attempt is stopped by Khan -e- Mozaffar and he is informed that he cannot leave town until the memoirs are fully written. Reza, feeling helpless, decides to assassinate Khan -e- Mozaffar and finish his mission of eliminating Hezardastan. But his decision is discovered and he is poisoned by the Head Waiter of Grand Hotel (also portrayed by Jahangir Forouhar) before his attempt.

Weakened by the poison, Reza takes his gun and goes into Khan -e- Mozaffar's room to assassinate him; but instead is faced with the Head Waiter in Khan -e- Mozaffar's bed. Confused and barely standing, Reza goes to the balcony and then is pushed out by the Head Waiter. As people gather around Reza's corpse, Seyyed Morteza sees Khan -e- Mozaffar on the balcony looking down at the people and Reza. A voice over concludes the story, telling that Seyyed Morteza killed Khan -e- Mozaffar in the near future.

Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War

The story takes place in 1863 when Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia are victorious at the Battle of Gettysburg instead of the United States. Instead of attacking the Union line on July 2, 1863, Lee conducts a broad turning movement and forces the Army of the Potomac to attack him in a favorable position. Gettysburg becomes something of a footnote in the main battle, which takes place at Union Mills in Maryland. The defeat at Union Mills is a grave setback to the United States, but it by no means spells the end of the war or determines its outcome and the United States still has a lot of fight in it.

In this, the book takes an opposing view to the classic ''Bring the Jubilee'' published in 1953 - precisely fifty years before the present book - which assumes that a defeat in Gettysburg would have led to a complete defeat and catastrophic collapse of the North.

Grant Comes East

The novel begins at Union Mills, Maryland. The battle that began at Gettysburg ended on July 4, 1863 (at the same time as the fall of Vicksburg) with a decisive but costly Confederate victory. General Robert E. Lee and his troops march on Washington, D.C., and launch an assault, hoping that if they can take the capital they can win the war.

Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln has appointed Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the victor of Vicksburg, as commander of all Union forces and ordered him to attack Lee. Grant masses his forces (the newly minted ''Army of the Susquehanna'') at Harrisburg, while Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles gains control (through his violent pacification of the New York Draft Riots) of the Army of the Potomac.

Sickles has his eye on the White House, but he needs to defeat Lee in order to win the Civil War for the War Democrats. Violating orders from Grant, he rolls his troops out to meet Lee's army alone. A sidebar shows Napoleon III planning to have France invade the United States through their client state, the Second Mexican Empire.

Bloodily repulsed at Fort Stevens outside Washington (where the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment played a decisive role), Lee turns on Baltimore. Abandoned by the Union, Baltimore descends into chaos; Lee, sickened by the violence, orders the provost guard in force to end it. Using Baltimore to threaten Washington D.C., Lee turns his entire army upon the advancing Sickles, facing off at the former site of Joppa along the Gunpowder River northeast of Baltimore.

Lee destroys the Army of the Potomac in a rout, with Sickles losing a leg in the process (as he did historically in the Battle of Gettysburg). The battle pens Lee up in Maryland, however. Grant and William T. Sherman converge on Virginia via Pennsylvania and Georgia. The novel ends with Lee scrambling to meet Grant's threat.

The Family Markowitz

Centred on a middle-class American Jewish family, ''The Family Markowitz'' touches on themes ranging from religiosity to ageing and from homosexuality to intermarriage. The novel tells the story of four main characters: Rose Markowitz (the matriarch), her sons Ed and Henry, and her daughter-in-law Sarah. Through these characters, the reader meets many other members of the family including Ed's four children, Henry's wife, and Rose's stepdaughter.

The Face in the Frost

The story opens with Prospero at home on a late summer day when he feels particularly uneasy. In the evening he receives an unexpected visit from his friend Roger Bacon, and the two discuss unusual phenomena that have transpired lately, especially those concerning a mysterious book for which Roger has been searching England. The following morning the two wizards find Prospero’s house besieged by agents of some other wizard who seems to have ill designs for them. They escape the house by shrinking themselves down and sailing out on a model ship via an underground stream accessible through Prospero’s basement. Once they regain their normal size they visit a library of records where Prospero discovers, as Roger stands guard outside, that a seal appearing in the mysterious aforementioned book belongs to Melichus, an old rival of his. Unfortunately, at that point a person comes into the library and claims to have killed Roger.

Prospero flees the library and spends the night in a nearby town, where he luckily escapes an attack from some sort of evil creature sent by Melichus. The following day he travels to the cursed grove where Melichus is supposed to be buried, only to discover that the one buried there is not Melichus, but only one of his former servants. He presumes, therefore, that Melichus is still alive. After narrowly escaping from the cursed grove he travels to the town of Five Dials, where he stays at an inn with somewhat unsettling clientele and staff. Unable to sleep, he becomes suspicious of the inn and begins checking the other rooms, only to find them all empty. In the last room he finds the innkeeper with a large knife and flees the inn, whereupon he discovers that the entire town was an illusion (presumably created by Melichus).

At last, Prospero and Roger are reunited at the actual site called Five Dials, a lone inn on the edge of the country. Here they discuss why Melichus is after Prospero: they once created a magical item together, a kind of crystal ball resembling a green glass paperweight. Since neither one can fully possess it without the other’s cooperation, Prospero will have some share in Melichus’ power until he is dead. They also determine that Melichus is using the mysterious book mentioned early in the story to create a permanent winter over the world. While staying the night at Five Dials they meet a small armed force that intends to attack a village across the border. Roger and Prospero thwart the army by destroying a necessary bridge and begin traveling to the village where the paperweight is kept, and where, they presume, Melichus is now. As they travel, unseasonably cold weather gradually sets in. Though the way to their destination is blocked, they find a monk herbalist who lets them in through a back entrance. Once in the village they do find Melichus studying the book. Prospero attempts to steal the paperweight, only to be transported to a different world. Melichus follows him there, but Prospero meets another wizard who takes the magical item and defeats Melichus. In the end, Prospero returns home to find that the early winter has subsided.

The novel closes with a victory celebration of the wizards involved in vanquishing Melichus and destroying the book Melichus used.

Parade of the Award Nominees

The short features Mickey Mouse leading a parade of caricatured nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress. He is assisted by Minnie Mouse, Clarabelle Cow, and various anthropomorphic animals and insects as musicians and pages. The nominees in order of appearance were: * Wallace Beery (with Jackie Cooper) for ''The Champ'' * Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt for ''The Guardsman'' * Helen Hayes for ''The Sin of Madelon Claudet'' * Fredric March for ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' * Marie Dressler for ''Emma''

Pluto rounds up the procession that reads "THE END".

Spider (novel)

Spider, birth name Dennis Cleg, is a recent arrival from a psychiatric hospital to a halfway house in the East End of London—just a few streets away from the very house where he grew up, which was the scene of some barely visible but tremendous trauma which peeps out at the reader gradually from the fog of Spider's reminiscences.

As the story opens, Spider has just taken up residence in the halfway house, under the stern eye of Mrs. Wilkinson, along with a handful of others he calls "dead souls". He takes daily walks to the River Thames, following the old canals and towpaths that run along the edge of his memories, under the shadow of the immense oil and gas tanks that dominate the industrial landscape. As he sits on a bench, rolling his own cigarettes, he begins to tell the tale of his childhood, of his remote, emotionally brutal father and slight, quiet, protective mother.

He is, or so he states, writing all this down in a notebook which he keeps hidden, variously, under a newspaper drawer-liner, under the damaged linoleum floor of his room, or up the chimney of a disused gas fire.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

When a body is found hanging on top of the sign demarcating the Ontario-Quebec border, police officers from both Canadian provinces must join forces to solve the murder. David Bouchard is a rule-bending, francophone detective for the Sûreté du Québec, while Martin Ward is a by-the-book anglophone Ontario Provincial Police detective. The bilingual detectives must resolve their professional and cultural differences as well as their bigotry and prejudices.

The body is identified as Benoit Brisset, a hockey executive. The clues lead the pair to Luc Therrien at a roadside bar. After a fight in the bar, they imprison him in the trunk of Bouchard's car. Bouchard has promised to watch his daughter's ballet recital, so he drives to the recital and parks the car in front with Therrien still locked in the trunk. When they emerge, they find the car being towed from the no-parking zone, and as they try to chase down the truck driver, the car explodes.

With their prime witness dead, they decide to search Therrien's house where they find a large marijuana grow-op in the basement. They also discover another body, a former hockey team owner. A laser tripwire is activated by Bouchard, which sets the house on fire, destroying the house and causing the two cops to get high on the fumes of the burning marijuana. When they are disciplined by Bouchard's police chief shortly afterwards, he angrily removes them from the case after they start laughing hysterically because they're still high.

The next victim is discovered in Toronto. They realize that the killer has a pattern of tattooing his victims, with each tattoo providing a clue to the next murder victim. Each murder is in some way connected to major league hockey. (The film uses thinly disguised parodies of National Hockey League teams, owners and players, however, rather than the real league). The pair anticipate the next victim, but he goes missing before they reach him. Ward and Bouchard appear on a hockey broadcast to warn people in the hockey community to be vigilant. The "Tattoo Killer" calls in to the show and threatens the two police officers, causing a brawl between them and the anchor when they attempt to hang up.

Ward is attacked in his home by a masked assailant whom he discovers is Therrien. Meanwhile, Bouchard has sex with Ward's sister.

The "Tattoo Killer" kidnaps Bouchard's daughter, leading to the final confrontation with the two policemen. It is ultimately revealed that the murders are being committed by a bilingual portly hockey fan, as previously mentioned, under the direction and unequal partnership of a sadistic, psychopathic, sociopathic, fan of the notion of the game of hockey as a Canadian nationalistic symbol that he feels is being permanently corrupted by attempts to move ownership of Canadian teams to venture capitalist groups in the United States. He is therefore having Therrien commit the murders along with him (with the tattoos as a signature), as revenge against the hockey league for desecrating the game by moving Canadian teams such as the "Quebec Fleur de Lys" to the United States. They try to reason with him that hockey is just a game and exchange Therrien who the detectives intercepted tailing them at a conference, for Bouchard's daughter, but this only angers him. The Tattoo Killer executes Therrien, Ward distracts the man while Bouchard unties his daughter. After a fight, the killer is blown up by one of his own explosives. During the credits, a news report is shown, revealing that the hockey teams will not be moved.

Beowulf's Children

As the story opens the second generation of Avalon's colonists are coming of age, and the potential for teenage rebellion has never been so strong. The original colonists (the "Earth-born"), although selected for optimal physical and mental attributes, suffered varying levels of brain damage due to the unforeseen effects of long periods of chemically and temperature-induced hibernation necessary to survive the long journey to Avalon. Their children (the "star-born") have no such disability; instead, they are geniuses with feeble-minded parents. The Grendel Wars (in which the Earth-Born's short-sightedness nearly led to their extermination) are still fresh in their minds. The battle-proven (yet impaired) elders preach a dogma of zealous caution which might have once tried their own patience; the brilliant (and arrogant) Star-Born deem it cowardice and tyranny.

Adding to the strain are those who made the journey to Avalon as cargo: the "Bottle Babies", embryos grown in artificial wombs. They were raised collectively, lacking the family ties of their fellow Star-Born, and feel less obliged to obey. Aaron Tragon (perhaps the most intelligent of them) is more than just rebellious; he may be insane. As conflict brews between generations on the island of Camelot, on the mainland a dangerous question has been answered. The Grendels nearly drove the colony into extinction, but what preys on the Grendels is even worse. Two of the colony's best and brightest die in a horrifying, inexplicable fashion: a storm of yellow sand which has left nothing but naked bones soaked with Grendel supercharger, and a baby wrapped in a blue blanket. The Earth-Born ban further trips to the mainland, but the Star Born make an attempt to return on a quest for answers (and vengeance). Cadmann Weyland (the colony's hero from the Grendel War) stows away on the return trip, accidentally killing one of the Star-Born during an altercation.

The colony holds a tribunal, which finds Cadmann not guilty; this increases tension between the generations of colonists. Aaron Tragon takes advantage of this to further his own goals. Instead of challenging the decision, he shows the tribunal unshakable evidence of an approaching danger. Tau Ceti's sunspot cycle is 50 years, not 11 like Earth's. Because of it, Avalon is entering a period of agitated weather and its lifeforms will react to it in ways the colony has never before seen. If the colony is to survive, trips to the mainland to study Avalon's life are essential – trips such as the one an Earth-Born killed a Star-Born to prevent. Over the objections of senior colonists, missions to the mainland resume. Tragon has humiliated the Earth-Born and established himself as leader of the Star-Born.

Months later the yellow storm has not been seen again and the Grendels (although more numerous and varied) are only a dangerous predator, not a demonic horde. There is much to learn; the danger seems controllable until a rainstorm permits six Grendels to reach a snowy mountaintop where a study is taking place. The snow permits them to supercharge without dying, and they will not stop to eat their dead; these Grendels "cooperate". Although the team is able to drive them off with only one casualty, they are shaken. The Grendels, although dangerous, had always been predictable; now they are changing. Aaron Tragon behaves more erratically, convinced that the source of his powers is his origin as a Bottle Baby. He hopes to use artificial wombs to sire hundreds of children (breeding them like horses), and begins worshipping the Grendels.

On Camelot Cadmann is disturbed and withdrawn, reflecting on events on the mainland. A small group of Star-Born, trapped in a snowstorm, killed five Grendels with only one casualty, Stu Ellington, a bottle baby. The Grendels were intelligent enough to take advantage of the snowstorm to overcome the heat generated during supercharging, and cooperated to hunt the Star-Born. In contrast, when the Earth-Born first encountered the Grendels they lost ten colonists while driving off one gravely wounded monster. What was mortal danger to the Earth-Born is a momentary threat to the Star-Born. This reveals a further dichotomy between Earth-Born and Star-Born: to the Earth-Born the mainland is no man's land, but to the Star-Born it is an exhilarating challenge.

The killing of a Star-Born by Cadman Wayland destroyed any remaining trust of the Star-Born for the Earth-Born. The Star-Born see a parallel between the Earth-Born and the Grendels: both seem willing to kill their offspring for their benefit. This cements Aaron Tragon's role as leader of the Star-Born; to Cadmann, this appears deliberate. Aaron's quest for power causes Cadmann to investigate Aaron's background and psychology. He discovers that most "Bottle Babies" have a need for purpose, and bond strongly to their families as a result. Aaron did not bond with his family; he seems instead to have bonded to colonization at the exclusion of all other ties. He seems to be exhibiting megalomania.

On the mainland, the Grendels are evolving. Some develop the ability to resist their instinct to hunt and kill mindlessly. One, in particular, refuses to kill her own offspring; instead she establishes a family, with unknown effects on Grendel development. The Earth-Born visit the Star-Born town of Shangri-La; now that the two groups are cooperating, discoveries are made. One is disturbing: another life-form (a pollinater similar to an Earth bee) which uses a Grendel supercharger. There is also a glorious one; for the first time, a human and a Grendel meet and neither tries to kill the other.

Camelot's Grendels are an anomaly. On the mainland, some Grendels cooperate with each other and with similar species. Without the cannibalistic cycle existing on Camelot, they have more advanced traits. They hunt in packs, building bridges like beavers with "samlon ladders" to permit use by both branches of the species. One chose to leave, rather than confront an armed human. In mainland Grendels, there is the possibility for coexistence.

There is a physical difference between the two types as well. Mainland Grendels are prone to infestation by a brain parasite. Although it may be lethal (reproducing uncontrollably inside the Grendel's brain until their skull breaks open) it may also be symbiotic, enhancing the Grendels' intelligence in exchange for nutrition. This depends on when the infection occurs; during development, the symbiote and host are able to adapt to each other and produce heightened intelligence. Infestation after development is fatal, and the parasite is absent from the island.

The first discovery is also understood; the "bees" are the yellow storm. They are scavengers, with a taste for Grendels; after eating them the bees collect the supercharger like Earth bees collect pollen so when they are desperate, they can use it themselves and hunt rather than scavenge – stripping whole areas bare. This began the conflict; a windstorm pulled the sturdy, crustacean-like insects across a desert. When the storm hit the camp they were starving, and used their stores of supercharger to eat whatever was available. The blanket in which the baby was wrapped was an aposematic (warning) shade of blue (later called "Cadzie" blue for the baby it protected), which the bees avoided. This discovery gives the colonists an ability to deal with the "bees", at least on a small scale. This helps the Earth-Born realize the drawbacks of their perspective on danger, and the value of investigating (rather than avoiding) it.

The threat to the colony is not eliminated, however. Further study of the bees shows that their nests are in areas which will be flooded by the sea as the planet warms. That is why so many bees were in that storm; their hives were flooded, and soon that will happen to large bee populations. Until the storms are over the mainland will have to be evacuated, but Tragon resists. He attacks Cadmann and another Star-Born to prevent this knowledge from spreading, to protect Shangri-La and his dream. The Star-Born survives; the family-building Grendel finds him, spares his life and takes him to safety.

Tragon returns to Shangri-La with a story that Cadmann and his fellow Star-Born were eaten by Grendels, but the bees are still coming. When they arrive with devastation; not only do they eat everything but the supercharger they carry is still explosive, capable of knocking aircraft out of the sky. As Tragon rallies his people the old Grendel drags the barely alive, lost Star-Born into Shangri-La; his father welcomes both, protecting the Grendel. The boy has enough strength to say, "Aaron shot us" before the bees hit Shangri-La.

The Grendel hides in the town's cistern, and Tragon survives by burying himself in a stockyard's manure pile. The rest of the town is not as fortunate. The only things stopping the bees are solid walls or fire – which ignites hundreds at once like hundreds of cherry bombs, setting much of the town ablaze. Only 63 of about 90 colonists return to the island. Aaron Tragon is not one of them. After Shangri-La is evacuated he stumbles through the ruins of his kingdom, covered in animal waste. The crops are gone, eaten by the bees. Even the cooperative, beaver Grendels must eat the samlon (Grendel "larvae") to survive. Aaron, still driven by his ambition, wanders away from the town. Two years later, the colonists return to the ruins of Shangri-La. Tragon (or what remains of him) is there. Mentally, it seems Aaron Tragon is dead but what remains is that he has made peace with the intelligent Grendels. He will serve as a bridge between the humans and the Grendels, who will reshape Avalon into its namesake.

Category:1995 science fiction novels Category:Novels by Larry Niven Category:Novels by Jerry Pournelle Category:Collaborative novels Category:Victor Gollancz Ltd books Category:1995 American novels

Mighty Joe Young (1998 film)

As a child, Jill Young witnesses the death of her mother, primatologist Ruth Young, and the mother of Joe, an infant mountain gorilla, at the hands of poachers led by Andrei Strasser, who loses his right thumb and trigger finger to Joe, swearing revenge.

Twelve years later, Jill has raised Joe, now grown to a height of tall and weighing . As a result, other gorillas will not accept him and they are both now living in relative peace until a wildlife refuge director, Gregg O'Hara, convinces Jill that they would be safer from poachers if they relocated to the United States.

The trio goes to Los Angeles and win the hearts of the refuge staff at the conservancy, who put Jill in charge of Joe. Jill meets Strasser, who now runs a fraudulent animal preserve in Botswana, while secretly selling animal organs on the black market, and is eager for revenge after seeing Joe featured on a news report. At first, Jill does not recognize him, since his right hand is concealed in his coat pocket. Strasser attempts to convince Jill that Joe would be better off in his wildlife refuge back in Africa. During a gala, Strasser's henchman Garth uses a poacher's noisemaker to scare Joe into a frenzy. Joe trashes the gala, with the intention of attacking Strasser, but is captured, and imprisoned in a concrete bunker.

When Jill discovers that Joe may be euthanized, she accepts Strasser's offer. She and the refuge staff smuggle Joe out in a truck. Before their departure, Gregg, who has fallen in love with Jill, kisses her goodbye. Shortly after Jill leaves, the maintenance workers come in with the poacher's noisemaker that they found while cleaning up the gala, making Gregg realize Jill and Joe are in danger and he drives after them.

On the way to the airport, Jill notices the half-glove covering Strasser's missing fingers and recognizes him. She fights Strasser and Garth, then jumps from the truck onto Hollywood Boulevard, leading to several automobile accidents. Joe sees her and tilts the truck over onto its side and flees, rampaging through the Hollywood city and being chased by helicopters, before arriving at the Santa Monica Pier carnival.

Gregg finds Jill, who tells him of Strasser's intentions and her history with him. They track Joe to the carnival where he is playfully wreaking havoc. Strasser, determined to prevent Jill from exposing him, arrives and attempts to shoot her. But Garth, appalled at Strasser's ruthlessness, turns against him and shoves the gun away from Jill, causing Strasser to misfire at a spotlight, which starts a fire that quickly spreads throughout the carnival. After knocking Garth unconscious, Strasser attempts to kill Jill in person, but Joe sneaks up behind them and throws the evil poacher onto a nearby power line. Unable to grip the wire due to his missing fingers, Strasser falls onto a transformer below and is electrocuted to death, leaving only his prosthetic half-glove dangling from the cable.

Later, Joe attempts to save a child, who he had earlier bonded with while en route to the conservancy, from atop the burning Ferris wheel, but the fire burns it down and Joe and the child fall to the ground, where Joe jumps off of the burning wheel, protecting the boy and knocking himself unconscious. Joe survives the fall and awakens, and Jill mentions that they need to raise money to open a reserve for him. The young boy named Jason donates some change to Jill after hearing this, prompting nearby civilians to contribute.

Joe is returned to Uganda where Jill and Gregg open the "Joe Young Reserve". Finally free, Joe runs off into the jungle.

Angel on My Shoulder (film)

After his release from prison, gangster Eddie Kagle is killed by his partner in crime, Smiley Williams. Kagle ends up in Hell, where "Nick" offers him a chance to leave and avenge his own death in exchange for help with a problem. Kagle looks exactly like Judge Frederick Parker, an upright man who is causing Nick distress because he is entirely too honest. Nick fears that Parker may cause him more anxiety in future, as he is running for governor of his state. Nick wants to destroy Parker's reputation and Kagle readily agrees to have his soul transferred into Parker's body.

As soon as Kagle appears as Parker, odd things begin to happen. Kagle pursues his goal with evil intent (though often at cross purposes with the Devil), but everything he does to ruin Judge Parker's reputation somehow results in making Parker look better. Along the way, Kagle falls in love with Barbara Foster, the judge's fiancée, causing him to question his whole outlook on life and eventually rebel against Nick.

Nick presents Kagle the opportunity to shoot Williams, but instead Kagle confronts the man with the truth. Shocked and frightened, Williams backs away and falls out of an open window to his death. Beyond Nick's power by virtue of having committed no wrongdoing since he was returned to life, Kagle is eager to stay, start a life with Barbara, and take up Judge Parker's mission to support troubled young people, but Nick points out that every moment Kagle is on Earth, he's denying Parker and Barbara their rightful life together. Kagle agrees, bids Barbara farewell, and relinquishes Parker's body, allowing the couple a tearful reunion.

Exasperated and defeated, Nick takes Kagle back to Hell, leaving Judge Parker in a much better position than before. Nick threatens to make the reformed Kagle's punishment even more painful than usual, but Kagle blackmails his would-be tormentor; in return for not revealing Nick's blunders, Kagle wants to be made a trustee. Nick has no option but to agree to the demand.

Going Hollywood

The film tells how an infatuated school-teacher, Sylvia Bruce (Marion Davies), follows Bill Williams (Bing Crosby), a popular crooner, to Hollywood where he is to make a picture. On board the train she obtains a job as maid to Bill's French fiancée and leading lady, Lili Yvonne (Fifi D'Orsay), and meets the film's director, Conroy (Ned Sparks), and promoter, Baker (Stuart Erwin). On arrival in Hollywood she is befriended by Jill (Patsy Kelly) and shares her rooms.

At the Independent Art Studio in Hollywood, where the film is being made, Lili's temperament and lack of talent cause Conroy much concern. Eventually, after losing her temper with a woman who asks for her autograph, Lili refuses to continue unless the woman is removed from the Studio. She is persuaded to stay and production continues with her singing 'Cinderella's Fella' but Conroy is still not satisfied and an angry Lili walks out. Sylvia impersonates Lili's version of the song and ends with an imitation of Lili's tantrums. Lili returns in time to hear Sylvia and there is a brawl in which Lili gets a black eye. Baker, who has also heard Sylvia, intervenes by firing Lili and engaging Sylvia for the part.

Baker asks Sylvia to accompany him to a party but withdraws when Bill expresses his own interest in her. Bill takes Sylvia to dinner and the party but a quarrel ensues and she accuses him of insincerity. Bill deserts the film and goes with Lili to Tijuana where, drinking heavily, he receives a telephone call from the Studio with the ultimatum that if he does not return they will get a replacement. Lili advises him to let them do so and suggests that they fly together to New York and on to Paris. Sylvia finds him and pleads for him to come back to the Studio but returns without him.

In Hollywood there is difficulty with the player chosen to replace Bill and eventually Bill finally appears at the Studio to rejoin Sylvia in the film's closing sequence to sing 'Our Big Love Scene'.

The song 'Beautiful Girl' is sung by Crosby at the beginning of the film before his departure for Hollywood when technicians arrive to record it. When he boards the train at Grand Central Terminal there is a big production number where he and the chorus sing 'Going Hollywood'. He also sings a few lines of 'Just an Echo in the Valley'. Crosby is also heard singing 'Our Big Love Scene' on the radio when Jill is showing Sylvia her apartment. 'We'll Make Hay While the Sun Shines' is a dream-sequence production number with thunderstorm effects at the Studio and is featured by Crosby, Marion Davies, chorus and dancers. An impersonation act by The Radio Rogues is also filmed at the Studio and includes imitations of Kate Smith ('When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain'). Russ Columbo ('You Call It Madness But I Call It Love'), Morton Downey ('Remember Me?') and Rudy Vallee ('My Dime Is Your Dime'). Crosby sings 'After Sundown' at the party. 'Temptation' was an early film attempt to fit a song into the story pattern and was presented dramatically by Crosby whilst drinking tequila in a bar at Tijuana.

Absurdistan (novel)

Misha is known as "Snack Daddy" from his days at Accidental College, a school in the Midwestern U.S. (The college resembles Oberlin College, which Shteyngart attended, while its name "Accidental" is a play on the name of Occidental College.) Misha is desperate to return to his true love, Rouenna, whom he met while she was working at a "titty bar". She now attends Hunter College, at Misha's expense.

After Misha's father kills a prominent Oklahoma businessman, the INS bars the entire Vainberg family from entry into the United States. This strands Misha in his native Saint Petersburg (which he nostalgically refers to as "St. Leninsburg").

Misha's father is killed by a fellow oligarch. Soon afterwards, Misha has the opportunity to buy a Belgian passport from a corrupt diplomat in the fictitious ex-Soviet republic of Absurdsvanϊ (also known as Absurdistan).

Absurdistan's reputation for oil riches has earned it the nickname "Norway of the Caspian." The country is divided between two major ethnic groups: the Sevo and Svanϊ. They hate each other due to their dispute over the proper direction in which the "footrest" of the Orthodox cross is to be tilted. Civil war erupts in Absurdistan, and for the sake of a new love he has found, Misha is forced to take sides in the conflict.

Appointed as Minister of Multiculturalism, Misha is asked to petition Israel for funds, but he finds that the Sevo leader is manipulating him—and that the Sevo leader has been in league with the Svanϊ leader all along.

Beware the Gray Ghost

The episode opens with a flashback of a young Bruce Wayne watching ''The Gray Ghost'', a black-and-white television show, and the episode cuts between the flashback and events in the present, which mirror those of the show: a whirring sound is heard, a building is destroyed by an explosion, the Gray Ghost goes into action while Batman does the same in reality, and the police receive a ransom letter from "The Mad Bomber".

In the present day, Batman makes the connection between the explosion and the television show but does not know what happened as he fell asleep before it was over. He tracks down Simon Trent, the actor who portrayed the Gray Ghost. Now unemployed, typecast and short of money, Trent sells his Gray Ghost costume to toy shop owner and collector Ted Dymer. The next morning he finds his costume back in his apartment with an anonymous letter to meet in an alley. When Trent and Batman meet, Trent gives Batman a copy of the show from his personal archive (the production copies having been destroyed in a vault fire).

Learning the source of the whirring noises are remote-control toy cars armed with explosives, Bruce realizes the next target will be the Gotham Library. The library is defended from a wave of toy cars, but Batman is trapped by another wave of them. He is rescued by Trent, who is wearing the costume.

At the Batcave they discover a captured toy car has Trent's fingerprints on it, from which Trent realizes the Mad Bomber is Dymer, who reveals he is carrying out the attacks to raise money so that he can buy more toys. Batman and Trent capture Dymer, and his toy store and weaponry are destroyed.

Trent is hailed as a real-life hero, prompting a resurgence in the Gray Ghost's popularity. His complete archive of the ''Gray Ghost'' television series is released, providing him with both fresh income and a revitalized career. Bruce visits him at the product launch and asks for an autograph, explaining the Gray Ghost was, and "still is," his childhood hero; in realization, Trent smiles as Bruce leaves.

EOE: Eve of Extinction

The main character, Josh Calloway (voiced by Cam Clarke), is an employee of the Wisdom Company, which is portrayed as a stereotypical evil corporation. Wisdom plans to achieve worldwide military control with a certain weapon to outpower any other: "Legacy". Legacy is created by fusing a rare alloy called Orichalcum with a human soul. Wisdom takes Josh's girlfriend, Elliel (voiced by Jennifer Hale), also an employee of Wisdom, and creates Legacy out of her, which makes her body disappear, and her essence is within the weapon that Josh wields. The player's main goal in the game is to return her to normal, using a certain memory chip owned by the Wisdom CEO. Josh and Eliel, Eliel is already turned into Legacy, are transported in a plane, which suffers a malfunction, and crashes. Elliel can sense other Legacy, and that is what she and Josh follow when they hunt for the CEO. Eventually, they meet the CEO of Wisdom, Agla (voiced by Peter Renaday), and defeat him, and Elliel is returned to normal.

Dallas: The Early Years

Written by series creator David Jacobs, the movie chronicles the exploits of Jock Ewing, Ellie Southworth, and Willard "Digger" Barnes from 1933 to 1951, and firmly established the background story of ''Dallas'' and how the long and ongoing feud between Jock and Digger started. Larry Hagman also appears in the opening sequence as his character, J.R. Ewing, being interviewed by a reporter who is researching the Barnes – Ewing feud.

While focusing on the triangle of Jock – Ellie – Digger, the movie also features Jock's brother, Jason, and Miss Ellie's father, Aaron, as starring characters. It shows the origins of the Ewing Oil, and Jock's schemings to make it big, and it deals with the inter-family relations of the Ewings, the Barnes, and the Southworths. It also shows Jock's first marriage to Amanda Lewis, and Ellie's relationship with her mother, Barbara, and brother, Garrison.

The Aura (film)

In neo-noir fashion ''El Aura'' narrates in the first person the hallucinating voyage of Espinoza, a quiet, cynical taxidermist, who suffers epilepsy attacks, and is obsessed with committing the perfect crime.

He claims that the cops are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed, and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way; and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills.

On his first ever hunting trip, in the calm of the Patagonian forest, with one squeeze of the trigger his dreams are made real. Espinoza has accidentally killed a man who turns out to be a real criminal and he inherits his scheme: the heist of an armored truck carrying casino profits.

Moved by morbid curiosity, and later by an inexorable flow of events, the taxidermist sees himself thrown into his fantasies, piece by piece completing a puzzle irremediably encircling him. And he does it while struggling with his greatest weakness: epilepsy. Before each seizure he is visited by the "aura": a paradoxical moment of confusion and enlightenment where the past and future seem to blend.

Xak: The Art of Visual Stage

### Setting and story

''Xak: The Art of Visual Stage'' features a typical high fantasy setting. According to the game world's legends, a great war was fought between the benevolent but weakening ancient gods and a demon race, which led to the collapse and eventual mortality of the gods. After this 'War of Sealing', the gods divided the world into three parts: ''Xak'', the world of humans, ''Oceanity'', the world of faeries, and ''Xexis'', the world of demons. The demon world of Xexis was tightly sealed from the other two worlds as to prevent reentry of the warmongering demon race. Some demons were left behind in Xak, however, and others managed to discover a separate means to enter Xak from Xexis anyway. This ancient history is displayed in the introduction of Xak II.

One of them, Badu, was a very powerful demon, able to use coercive magic to make humans do his bidding. Duel, the god of war, managed to defeat Badu and seal him away in a mountain of ice for 250 years. The god later settled in a village known as Fearless to live out the rest of his mortal life.

At the beginning of the game, Badu's prison is broken. Demons overrun parts of Xak once again. In order to stop the ravaging of his lands, the King of Wavis sends a messenger faerie to Dork Kart, a famous warrior living in the village of Fearless. Dork, however, has gone missing. The player takes on the role of Latok Kart, Dork's 16-year-old son, as he meets the messenger faerie, Pixie. Latok embarks on the King's quest to slay Badu, hoping to find his father along the way.

In his travels, Latok is guided by Duel's spirit. Over the course of the game, it turns out that Dork and thus Latok is a descendant of Duel.

### Characters

Latok is the only playable character in the game. Notable non-player characters Latok meets include:

- Lou Miri Pixie, the green-haired messenger faerie sent by the King of Wavis that guides Latok along his way.
- Freya "Fray" Jerbain, a blue-haired girl Latok rescues from a wolf-infested forest. Fray is the main heroine of a Xak series spin-off, Fray In Magical Adventure ''Please see also'' Fray CD However, during the course of Xak she does not know yet how to use magic.
- Rune Greed, a green-haired warrior. He is a descendant of Duel as well and is on a quest to slay Badu of his own.
- Rabby, a magician's familiar rabbit given to Latok.
- Duel, the god of war, living on in spirit form.
- Elise, a childhood friend of Latok and the granddaughter of Fearless's mayor. She could be considered as a possible romantic interest of Latok.
- Saria, Latok's Mother, who is blind. Latok has taken care of her ever since his father disappeared.
- Bobby, the pacifist son of the blacksmith Dac of the town of Fearless.
- Nurse Elle, the nurse of the village of Fearless.
- Kane, a magician in the hobbit village of Nemnu who gives Latok a mascot familiar named Rabbie.
- Rachael, a girl whose father is in charge of a resistance hideout against the demons in the Land of Fire.
- Zwoon, a demon disguised as a human man who Latok accidentally sets free.
- Necromancer, a powerful black-robed demon with power over the dead. Necromancer is a recurring villain in the series.
- Badu, the main villain of the game who was recently released from his 250 year imprisonment.

Falling in Love (1984 film)

On Christmas Eve, commercial artist Molly Gilmore and architectural engineer Frank Raftis are last-minute Christmas shopping in Manhattan. Frank meets his colleague Ed for drinks; Ed tells Frank he is getting divorced. Molly sees her friend Isabelle, who is married, but plans to spend Christmas with another man; Molly also visits her sick father. Later that day, at the counter in a hectic bookstore, Frank and Molly get their packages mixed up, and on Christmas Day, Molly's husband, Brian, and Frank's wife, Ann, each opens the book that was meant for the other.

Three months later, Frank and Molly, who commute into Manhattan from adjacent stops on the Metro-North Hudson Line, run into each other on the morning train. They struggle to place each other, but eventually Frank remembers, and reminds her of the confusion over the books. Later that day, Frank's boss asks him to take a post in Houston. Molly visits her father in hospital. Molly tells Isabelle about Frank; Frank tells Ed about Molly. That evening, Frank waits for Molly at Grand Central Terminal. They talk, and agree to meet on the morning train later that week.

Against their better judgement, Frank and Molly grow closer. They see more and more of each other until, one afternoon, Frank takes Molly to Ed's apartment. They begin to make love, but Molly cannot go through with it. They agree that they must stop seeing each other.

When Molly returns home that day, Brian gives her the news that her father has died. At the funeral, she has a panic attack. Convalescing, she tells Isabelle that it isn't grief for her father that she is suffering, but the loss of Frank. Meanwhile, Frank agrees to take the job in Houston. He tells Ann about Molly, throwing the future of their marriage into question.

On the night he is due to leave, Frank calls Molly at home. Frank asks to see her before he goes, but as Brian stands listening, she ends the call. Unable to resist, she tells Brian she must see Frank one more time, and rushes to her car. Driving fast in the pouring rain, she nearly collides with a train at a crossing, and misses her chance. Meanwhile Frank tries to call her again but her husband answers the phone and says she doesn't want to talk to Frank.

Some time later, once more in the run up to Christmas, Frank meets Ed and tells him that he and Ann are now separated. Molly meets Isabelle, and it is clear from their conversation that her marriage to Brian has failed too. Frank makes a stop at the bookstore where he and Molly first met. Molly is there at the same time. They talk but, uncertain how things now stand between them, go their separate ways. Walking away from the store, Frank stops, turns, and runs after her. A short time later on a crowded train out of Grand Central, he finds her again. They embrace.

Dragon Tiger Gate

Dragon Tiger Gate is an academy established by two powerful martial artists. It aims to train students in martial arts in order to uphold justice and combat the threat of the Triad. It is also a haven for children who had been orphaned by the Triad. While Luocha Cult is a Pan-Asia heretic cult/drug trafficking organization led by the dictating might of its cult leader: Shibumi the Jashin of Frame Cloud. Shibumi, who is the only master of the legendary Yijin Jing and has many fearsome Kung Fu masters at his disposal, controls the entire Asia-Pacific Underground Drug market with Hong Kong as his base of operations.

The story begins with the two sons of Fu Hu Wong, one of the founders of the academy, who were each born to different mothers. The older is named Dragon and the younger is named Tiger. When the boys were young, Dragon's mother left the academy and gave Dragon half of a Jade amulet pendant and told him that his half-brother, Tiger, has the other half. When Dragon's mother was killed in a fire, Dragon was taken under the care of the Triad boss, Ma Kun, and he grew up to become his bodyguard. Ma Kun's gang is a subject of the evil Luocha Cult, which supervises Hong Kong's Drug dealing on its behalf. Tiger was raised by his elder uncle, Master Xian Lung Wong, after his parents' disappearance.

Several years later, Tiger and his friends are dining in a restaurant and encounter Ma Kun and his men, who are receiving the Luocha Plaque. A symbol of authority within the Luocha Cult indicates that the holder is second only to the cult's leader, Shibumi. Ma Kun and the leader of the White Lions Gang were arguing over the plaque when Tiger accidentally interrupts the meeting. One of Tiger's friends makes off with the plaque while Tiger starts a fight with the gangsters. Just then, Dragon appears and fights Tiger, whom he does not recognize to be his half-brother. Ma Kun calls for Dragon to pull back.

Later that night, Dragon confronts Tiger and his friends at a Japanese restaurant to take back the plaque. Tiger and his friends have been drugged by Scaly, one of Ma Kun's lackeys, who also wanted to retrieve the plaque to prove to his boss that he is the better man. Scaly and his followers fight Dragon over possession of the plaque. Turbo Shek, another eater at the restaurant, is aroused by the commotion and he joins the fight on Dragon's side. Dragon and Turbo defeat Scaly and his men and Dragon takes back the plaque from Tiger. Just then, Tiger discovers that Dragon has the other half of the jade amulet pendant and realizes that Dragon is his half-brother.

Turbo follows Tiger back to Dragon Tiger Gate, wanting to be enrolled into the academy to improve his martial arts skills. He is refused by the current leader of the academy, Master Wong, for his arrogance. Dismayed, Turbo waits outside the academy and promises not to leave unless he is accepted as a student. Master Wong agrees to spar with Turbo and defeats him easily. Turbo is humbled and accepted by Master Wong as a student.

Meanwhile, Ma Kun returns the Luocha Plaque to signify his retirement. He is supported by Dragon, who wants to return to Dragon Tiger Gate, and his daughter Ma Xiaoling, who wants a simple life. Shibumi sees this as an insult and sends his henchmen, the Double Devils, to kill Ma Kun. He uses his subordinate Rosa to lure Dragon away while his minions kill Ma Kun. Dragon returns to rescue Ma Kun, but it is too late. Dragon slays the Double Devils after a vicious fight and leaves Ma Xiaoling in his brother's care before leaving. Although he collapses on a grassland after succumbing to his wounds, he survives after having a vision of his young self giving him the jade pendant (his mother once gave him). Meanwhile, Tiger befriends the grieving Ma Xiaoling.

Shibumi was impressed with Dragon for defeating his henchmen and goes to Dragon Tiger Gate to issue a challenge. With Dragon absent, Master Wong, Tiger, and Turbo takes on Shibumi's challenge but were no match for him. As Master Wong had managed to put up a fight before being defeated, he is deemed worthy enough to die at Shibumi's hands while Shibumi spares the severely wounded Tiger and Turbo for their lack of skill. Ma Xiaoling, realizing that Shibumi will eventually come back for her and the rest of them and with Dragon not there, they would lose just as they had this time, brings Tiger and Turbo to Mount Baiyun to seek help from Master Qi as Dragon senses the passing of Master Wong and returns only to find the demolished Dragon Tiger Gate as he realizes he is too late to protect Master Wong, his brother and Xiaoling and screams in sadness before collapsing. Master Qi heals the wounded Tiger and Turbo and trains them for their incoming final battle with Shibumi, including teaching new martial arts techniques: Spinning Lightning Dragon Kick and Invulnerable Golden Bell Technique. Dragon also practices to fight Shibumi for the first and final time after having reminisced of his time with Xiaoling and appears to have developed a new one.

Tiger and Turbo storm Shibumi's Black Pagoda to stop his reign of terror once and for all and engage him in a fierce fight, using all their greatly improved martial arts abilities and the new techniques they have learned to battle him. However, despite putting up a far better fight than before and even being praised by Shibumi for their improved abilities, Tiger and Turbo are ultimately still outmatched and severely beaten. As Shibumi mocks them for having embarrassed the techniques they have learned and is about to finally kill them, Dragon appears to engage Shibumi, tossing the Plaque back in honor of the Gate, and after luring Shibumi away from his injured brother and Turbo, engages him calmly with his improved abilities as he gains the upper hand and even mocks Shibumi to provoke his temper, eventually killing him with his Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms technique. Before the film ends, Dragon returns to Dragon Tiger Gate together with Tiger and Turbo (who decides to change his name to Leopard) to carry on Master Wong's legacy.

Jill Rips

Matt Sorenson, a former boxer and San Francisco cop, now makes a living collecting debts for small businesses. The brutal death of his high-powered younger brother, Michael, changes all that forever. Intent on finding his brother's killer, Sorenson infiltrates the powerful inner world of politics, business intrigue, and casual sex. Rejecting the police and media theory that the murder is the work of a female prostitute, Sorensen's focus falls on the corrupt big city businessman, Jim Conway. His obsession to discover the killer's identity mounts as other men are found murdered in a similar fashion. Sorenson loses all objectivity and becomes a vigilante.

Vampires: Los Muertos

A man on the streets searches for a prostitute, and when he finds one, he threatens her with a razor blade. Derek Bliss steps in and points an odd-looking gun at his left temple. The man backs away, and the prostitute thanks Derek and asks if she can do anything for him. He shoots her with three stakes, as she was a vampire. Derek drags her to an abandoned car lot and watches the body catch fire in the sunlight while filming it on camera.

When he gets back to his hotel room, the Van Helsing Group leader calls him and informs him that he has a new job. He goes down to Mexico to a convent where a group of vampire-hunting priests are staying. He has a strange vision, and one of the priests concludes that the vampires may be linking up with him.

That night, Una, a vampire princess, and her fledglings attack and feed upon a man. The next day, Derek goes looking for people on a list he has been given. Unfortunately, most of them are dead or crazy, and the last living ones are killed. Derek goes to a coffee shop and asks for a man named Jesse. He tells Derek to wait while he finishes up something. Derek then meets a young woman named Zoey, and he grows suspicious when she asks him if he works in the "undead" business. He leaves to go to the bathroom, and finds out that Zoey is a vampire by using a special lens, lamenting the fact as he thinks she's cute. In the split second it takes him to throw a paper towel in the trash, Una comes in, slashes the throats of every customer, and kidnaps Jesse.

When Derek comes out and sees that Zoey has also fled, he concludes that she must have done it. The next day, he pulls over when he sees her on the side of the road in daylight. They argue; Zoey tells him about special pills she takes to fight off her vampire side. She got bit accidentally by a vampire during a one-night stand. She has a vision of a monastery, and Derek realizes that it is the one where he just left. They drive back and find all but one priest slaughtered. Father Rodrigo tells them that Una is seeking the legendary Béziers Cross, the same cross used unsuccessfully in the first film used to perform a ritual that will enable vampires to walk in daylight and be invulnerable, and shows them something a fellow priest was working on in his spare time: a huge van complete with all the necessary vampire-slaying tools. Derek hears a noise in the trees, and finds a teenager that he had met before. His name is Sancho, and he has a permission slip from his mother, stating he can go on the vampire hunt with Derek.

The group meet up with another hunter, Ray Collins from Memphis, and go after Una. Una seduces Ray and convinces him to leave Zoey's pills where she can get them. When they reach the village where the vampires are hiding out, they are welcomed because they want the vampires killed. Una, now able to walk in daylight, goes out and kidnaps Zoey. Derek aims the gun at Sancho and says he must have given the pills to Una. However, a villager realizes that Ray did it, and shoots him before Derek shoots Sancho. Derek and the gang go after Zoey to rescue her, at the cost of leaving Rodrigo to properly perform the ritual. They go back to a clinic, where Zoey's vampire blood is exchanged for human blood; as her pills were all used, this method is the only way to suppress her vampire side for a time. Derek knows how to save Rodrigo; the vampire blood is pumped into his body.

The team goes after Rodrigo and find out that he was not a real priest. Una is not daunted, and she responds by lighting a fire beneath his feet. Derek saves Rodrigo, and goes after Una. They almost kill her, but she escapes when the cord which was dragging her into the sunlight snaps. She catches Derek, but Derek then grabs what is left of the cord. Before they reach the sunlight, Derek shoots her head off with a shotgun and sends it flying into the sun, where it catches fire. Her body turns into stone with a black beating heart in the chest. Derek drives a stake into the heart. Sancho and Rodrigo decide to stay in the village, and Derek and Zoey drive away in the sunset to resupply on pills.

Fallen Angel (The X-Files)

Near Townsend, Wisconsin, a UFO crashes in the woods. When the deputy sheriff arrives on the scene, he is killed by an invisible figure while surrounded by bright white light. As the Air Force monitors the crash, Colonel Calvin Henderson, the military's UFO reclamations expert, launches an operation to clean up the site.

After consulting with Deep Throat, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) travels to Townsend and takes photos of the crash site, only to be captured. After being interrogated by Henderson, Mulder is detained alongside an eccentric NICAP member named Max Fenig (Scott Bellis), who was also captured in the woods. The next morning, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) arrives to retrieve Mulder, telling him that FBI Section Chief Joseph McGrath is threatening to shut down the X-Files because of his actions. She also claims that the wreckage has been identified as a downed Libyan fighter jet; Mulder dismisses this explanation. Meanwhile, the invisible occupant of the UFO passes through an electronic fence set up around the crash site, escaping into the outside world.

The agents return to Mulder's motel room, finding it ransacked by Max. He turns out to be a fan of Mulder's, having followed NICAP's research into his work on the X-Files. Max brings the agents to his Airstream trailer, where he shows them audio transmissions from the deputy, as well as a fire crew that arrived at the crash site. Mulder and Scully visit the deputy's widow, who claims the government won't release her husband's body and has threatened her into silence. They also meet a doctor who treated the deputy and the fire crew, revealing that they died of abnormally severe burns; he claims that he was also threatened. Henderson arrives at the hospital with a group of burned soldiers, who were attacked after they cornered the invisible alien at their base.

Mulder returns to the motel and finds Max inside his trailer, having an apparent epileptic seizure. As Mulder tends to Max, he discovers a mysterious scar behind Max's ear. Mulder reviews earlier X-Files, discovering similar scars on two reported alien abductees. Scully believes that whatever abduction experience Max had was a schizophrenic delusion, having noticed medication in his trailer. But Mulder believes that Max, despite his interest in UFOs, is completely unaware of his experiences and was guided to Townsend by his abductors on the night of the crash.

The Air Force tracks a larger UFO as it hovers over Townsend. The invisible alien enters Max's trailer and abducts him. When the agents visit the trailer and find Max missing, an Army radio transmission reveals that he has been transported to a waterfront. They race to save Max as Henderson's men scour the area searching for him. The alien kills two soldiers who encounter Max, causing him to flee into a warehouse. As Mulder finds Max inside, the building is surrounded by Henderson's forces. Mulder tries to comfort Max, but is attacked and injured by the alien. Mulder then sees Max floating in a pillar of light before vanishing. When Henderson finds that Max is missing, he orders Mulder arrested.

Back in Washington, both Scully and Mulder report to Section Chief McGrath, who does not believe their claims. McGrath offers an especially harsh reprimand to Mulder, and presents written testimony by Henderson claiming that Max's body was found in a cargo container. McGrath and his disciplinary board decide to shut down the X-Files and dismiss Mulder from the FBI, but the decision is vetoed by Deep Throat, who feels it would be more dangerous for them to allow Mulder to turn whistleblower than to let him continue his work.

The Jennie Project

Hugo Archibald (Lance Guest) is a doctor and brings home a wide variety of exotic animal species. The latest animal he brings home is a chimpanzee named Jennie. Dr. Archibald is not home very much, and Andrew, Dr. Archibald's son, feels he does not care about him.

His wife Lea (Sheila Kelley) does not want Jennie, and says she makes trouble, but the children take an instant liking to her. Jennie is unique in that she is learning to use and understand sign language.

Jennie becomes an important part of Archibald family and Andrew (Alex D. Linz) develops a close relationship with her. Jennie loves the things Andrew does, such as baseball and comic books.

Jennie is also there for Andrew when he and his father disagree. A doctor Pamela Prentiss (Sheryl Lee Ralph) starts training with Jennie. She does not agree with the way Jennie is being cared for and is seen as being rude to the Archibald family. She teaches Jennie sign language in a way that Jennie does not understand, but Lea finds a way she understands.

Dr. Prentiss tried to convince Hugo to admit Jennie in the science lab where she works, but Hugo declines, but when Jennie starts making trouble, such as taking all the mail from the mailman and eating the neighbors tulips, she is taken to court and admitted into a science lab.

Then they decide to return Jennie to Africa where she was found. The relationship between Jennie and Andrew eventually brings the whole family closer together.

Eve (The X-Files)

In Greenwich, Connecticut, a couple out jogging find their neighbor, a young girl named Teena Simmons, standing alone in her driveway. After she explains her father is in the yard and wanted "some time", the couple find her father sitting dead on a swing set with two incisions in his neck. When agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully arrive, Mulder explains that he believes the death is an example of extraterrestrial cattle mutilation on a human being. When Mulder and Scully talk to Teena, she claims to have seen "red lightning" when her father died and that "men from the clouds" had wanted to "exsanguinate him."

Leaving Teena in the state's care, the agents travel to Marin County, California, the scene of a similar death at the Reardon household, where a man has died after being exsanguinated. Mulder and Scully realize that, despite thousands of miles lying between the two crime scenes, the killings were committed on the same day and at the same moment. Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, Teena is kidnapped by a dark-clothed figure.

When Mulder and Scully meet Mrs. Reardon and her daughter, Cindy, they discover that Cindy appears to be completely identical to Teena. Cindy's mother tells the agents that her daughter was conceived via in vitro fertilization at a fertility clinic in San Francisco. There, Scully learns that both the Simmons and the Reardons were treated by Dr. Sally Kendrick, who was eventually fired after being suspected of conducting eugenics experiments with ova from the clinic's lab. Meanwhile, Mulder is contacted by Deep Throat, who details the Litchfield Experiment, a Cold War-era supersoldier program that produced genetically modified clones who were identified as "Adam" or "Eve" based on their genders. Deep Throat tells Mulder of a woman connected with the project who is currently kept in a mental hospital.

The agents travel to the hospital and meet "Eve 6", who bears an identical resemblance to Sally Kendrick. Eve 6 tells them that the Adam and Eve clones created for the project had extra chromosomes which led them to display superhuman intelligence and strength, as well as extreme homicidal psychoses. The last three Eve clones, Eves 6, 7, and 8, were institutionalized after the project was cancelled. However, Eve 7 escaped and later joined the fertility clinic as "Sally Kendrick", and modified the ova of the clinic's patients to create new Eve clones. Eve 8, who also escaped, is still at large.

Though Mulder and Scully place Cindy Reardon's house under surveillance, they're unable to prevent one of the escaped Eves from abducting Cindy. The Eve takes Cindy to a motel where Teena is already being held captive, and introduces the two girls to each other. The woman reveals herself to be Eve 7/Sally Kendrick and explains that she cloned the girls using her own genetic material to improve upon the Litchfield Experiment's flaws, only to learn about the girls' "accelerated development" after they murdered their fathers. She asks the girls how they learned of each other's existence and how they planned to murder their fathers, to with Cindy and Teena reply in unison that they "just knew." The girls then poison Eve 7's drink with a fatal dose of digitalis, commonly known as foxglove, that they grew themselves.

Mulder and Scully arrive at the motel, only to find the Eve dead. The girls claim that both Eve 7 and Eve 8 were trying to goad them into a mass suicide and the agents decide to take the girls with them as they leave the scene, quietly discussing Teena's return to state care. That night, the group arrives at a roadside truck stop and order drinks the diner before using the restroom. One of the girls sneaks out, however, and poisons the sodas the agents ordered with the digitalis. After finding odd stains on the diner counter, Mulder realizes the girls' plan and manages to keep Scully from drinking more of her soda. The agents then pursue the girls through the truck stop, with Mulder eventually capturing them.

Teena and Cindy, now known as "Eve 9" and "Eve 10," end up in the same psychiatric ward with Eve 6 at the mental hospital. Eventually, a woman wearing a lab coat--and immediately recognized by Cindy and Teena as Eve 8—comes to the ward. When Eve 8 asks the girls how they knew she would come for them, the girls again respond in unison, "We just knew."Lowry, pp.126–127 Lovece, pp.71–73

Fire (The X-Files)

In Bosham, England, a wealthy elderly man says goodbye to his wife before leaving for work, but suddenly catches fire in an apparent case of spontaneous human combustion. His family and house staff including his Irish gardener, Cecil L'Ively watch as he burns to death on his front lawn.

Later, in Washington, D.C., Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are met by Phoebe Green, an investigator from London's Metropolitan Police and Mulder's former lover from Oxford University. Green explains that a serial arsonist is targeting the British aristocracy, burning his victims alive while leaving no trace of evidence. The only links between the crimes are the suspect's love letters to the victims' wives. His latest target is Sir Malcolm Marsden, who is visiting Cape Cod for protection after escaping an attack by the killer. Mulder and Scully visit a pyrotechnics expert who says that only rocket fuel can burn hot enough to destroy evidence of its origins.

Mulder tells Scully that Green, with whom he had a complicated relationship, is using the case to play a mind game, exploiting his debilitating fear of fire. Meanwhile, L'Ively—having killed a caretaker and assumed his identity—greets the Marsden family as they arrive at their Cape Cod vacation home, faking an American accent. Unbeknownst to the Marsdens, "Bob the Caretaker" is painting a layer of rocket fuel onto the exterior of the house. L'Ively befriends the Marsdens' sick family driver, offering to go into town to get him some cough syrup. While there, he uses his pyrokinetic abilities to burn down a local bar purely for fun.

At the hospital, Mulder and Green interview a witness to the bar fire, who tells them of the assailant's apparent ability to will fire into existence. The Marsdens' driver becomes even sicker due to the poisoned cough syrup provided by L'Ively. Because of his illness, L'Ively is recruited to drive the family into Boston that night to attend a party at a luxury hotel. Mulder flies up to Boston to watch over the party with Green, hoping to set a trap for the suspect; Scully continues working on compiling a criminal profile of the killer.

Mulder and Green dance during the party and afterwards kiss; Scully arrives at the hotel and sees them. She also spots L'Ively in the lobby, watching her. A fire alarm goes off after a blaze starts in the Marsdens' room, where the children are located. Mulder attempts to rescue them, but is overcome both by his phobia and the intense smoke; they are instead "saved" by L'Ively. When Mulder awakens, Scully questions "Bob", but is dismissed by Green, who believes the man is a long-time employee whose background checks out. Green tells Mulder that she will be accompanying the Marsdens when they return to England the next day.

Scully discusses her research with Mulder, suspecting that L'Ively is the arsonist; this is confirmed by a police sketch taken from the witness' description. Upon reaching the Marsdens' house, the agents find the driver's charred body in the bathroom before the second floor bursts into flames. As Scully and Green escort the Marsden's to safety, Mulder faces his phobia and is able to save the Marsden children. Scully holds L'Ively at gunpoint, but is forced to hold her fire when he informs her of the rocket fuel he has painted on the house. Green throws a can of the rocket fuel in L'Ively's face, causing him to lose control and set himself alight outside.

With the case solved, Green returns to England with the Marsden family. Despite having sustained fifth and sixth degree burns over most of his body, L'Ively survives his immolation and is held in a medical facility as he awaits trial where he heals at an alarming rate and is expected to make a full recovery. The episode's final scene shows him asking a nurse for a cigarette.Lowry, pp.128–129 Lovece, pp.74–75

Beyond the Sea (The X-Files)

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) entertains her parents, William (Don Davis) and Margaret Scully (Sheila Larken), shortly after Christmas. After they leave, she falls asleep on her sofa. Several hours later, she wakes up to see her father sitting across from her, speaking silently. The telephone rings, and she answers the call—from her mother, who tells her that her father died of a heart attack an hour earlier. Confused, she looks again at the chair and sees that it is empty.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a young couple are kidnapped by a man impersonating a police officer. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) tells Scully that Luther Lee Boggs (Brad Dourif), a serial killer he had helped catch years before, has claimed to have had psychic revelations about the kidnapping and has offered to help police in exchange for his death sentence being commuted. Mulder is unusually skeptical about Boggs's claims. Visiting Boggs in prison, the agents give Boggs a piece of "evidence" from which he has a vision, only to be told it is really a shred of Mulder's T-shirt. Satisfied that he is lying, the pair prepare to leave. However, Scully looks back at Boggs and sees another vision of her father, speaking to her and singing the song that had been played at his funeral: "Beyond the Sea". Scully does not tell Mulder about this, and the pair discuss the possibility that Boggs has orchestrated the kidnapping with a partner to avoid execution.

The agents have a fake newspaper made which declares the couple have been found, hoping to trick Boggs into contacting his accomplice. He does not fall for the trick, but gives the agents vague clues about the case. Scully, acting on these, first finds a warehouse where the couple had been held, and later leads Mulder and several other agents to a boathouse where the kidnapper is holding the couple. The girl is rescued, but the kidnapper shoots Mulder and escapes with the boyfriend. Following this, Mulder and the girl are sent to the hospital. Boggs is then visited by Scully, to whom he gives information about the kidnapper's new location, warning her to avoid "the devil". Scully then leads several agents to the location Boggs gave her—a brewery—where they rescue the kidnapped boyfriend. Scully chases the kidnapper as he flees, but stops in her tracks when he runs along a gantry beneath the brewery's logo—a leering blue devil. The gantry gives way, and the kidnapper falls to his death.

Scully speaks to Boggs again, suggesting that if he had orchestrated the kidnapping, the kidnapper would have been aware of the danger he warned her about. Boggs claims to be able to contact her father and offers to relay one last message from him if she will attend his execution. As he is about to be executed, Boggs sees that Scully has not attended.

Scully visits Mulder in the hospital, and explains to Mulder that she changed her mind and now believes Mulder's theory that Boggs arranged everything. She cites as evidence that if Boggs knew she was Mulder's partner, Boggs could have looked up the information about her father's death and used that information to manipulate her. Mulder asks her why she was afraid of believing, even if it meant losing the chance to hear from her father again through Boggs. She tells him that she did not need to hear anything, because she already knew what her father would have said.

Gender Bender (The X-Files)

In a dance club, a young man is taken by a young woman, Marty (Kate Twa), for casual sex. The man dies afterwards, and Marty leaves the room as a man (Peter Stebbings). FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called to the scene; Mulder believes that the man's death was caused by a fatal dose of pheromones. There is also ambiguity in similar murders as to the sex of the killer. Evidence from the crime scene leads the duo to an Amish-like community in Steveston, Massachusetts, which Mulder calls the Kindred.

Mulder approaches some of the Kindred, only to be shunned. Meanwhile, Scully befriends a member, Brother Andrew (Brent Hinkley), who is reluctant to talk. While shaking hands with him, Scully appears entranced, not coming to until Mulder catches her attention. The agents visit the Kindred's remote community, where they are asked to surrender their guns before entering. Mulder and Scully are invited to dinner. When the Kindred refuse to allow Scully to treat Brother Aaron, a sick participant at the table, Brother Andrew states that the Kindred take care of their own. Meanwhile, in another nightclub, a man convinces a girl to dance with him by touching her hand.

When the Kindred escort the agents out of the village, Mulder comments on the lack of children in the community and states that he recognizes some of the faces from photographs taken in the 1930s. Curious, he returns to the village that night, and hears chanting as a procession of the Kindred moves to a barn. Scully is led off by Brother Andrew, who claims to be able to give her information about the murderer, whom he calls Brother Martin. Downstairs in the barn, the group can be seen bathing Brother Aaron's body in watery clay. Mulder hides in a crevice, where he discovers that the sick man has been buried alive and has begun to take on feminine features. Meanwhile, Brother Andrew uses his power to seduce Scully. She is unable to resist, and is on the verge of succumbing before Mulder comes to her aid. The agents are again escorted out of the village.

Another man, Michel (Nicholas Lea), is having sex with the female form of Brother Martin in a parked car before a patrol officer interrupts them. As Michel suddenly starts retching, the officer is attacked by Brother Martin, who changes into a man and escapes. In the hospital Michel reluctantly reveals to Mulder and Scully that when he looked out of the car, the girl he was with "looked like a man". The agents are alerted about activity on a previous victim's credit card, which was stolen by Brother Martin. The agents chase Brother Martin into an alley, only to have the Kindred appear and take him away. The following morning the agents return to the Kindred's dwelling, which now appears deserted. The tunnels are blocked entirely with the white clay. Mulder and Scully walk into the nearby field where they find a large crop circle, suggesting that the Kindred are aliens.

'Twas the Night

A troubled and irresponsible man named Nick Wrigley (Bryan Cranston) is hacked by criminals who are looking for a bank account code to Nick's boss. The criminals Bill (Jeff Geddis) and Harry (Sandy Robson) manage to find his apartment and start deriding him for the Internet scam he has pulled on them, losing $30,000 in the process. They tell him they want their money by Christmas or else they will have their enforcer Eliot (Jung-Yul Kim) beat him up. Bill and Harry leave and Nick decides to run away. Nick is leaving the building when Eliot sees him leaving and chases him. Nick manages to escape when he runs to a North Pole stage where kids meet Santa Claus. He steals the costume for Santa Claus and walks to the bus stop in disguise and goes to his brother's house.

Meanwhile, the house's mischievous 14-year-old Danny Wrigley (Josh Zuckerman) welcomes his uncle because he has a better relationship with him than any other person in his family. Danny's father (Barclay Hope) however is less than thrilled to see his older brother, while his wife (Torri Higginson) welcomes Nick. Danny's parents, both doctors, are called into the hospital and reluctantly leave Nick to look after their three children. After receiving a threatening e-mail from Bill and Harry that they are currently tracking him down to get the money out of him, Nick ends up having to unleash a virus to throw them off his trail. On Christmas Eve, Santa comes to the house with a device that can freeze time, in order to put the family's presents under the tree unnoticed. An object hits the device, time goes back to normal, and Nick hits him unconscious. They decide to deliver Santa's presents. While Nick is delivering the presents, unbeknown to Danny he is stealing from the houses. When Danny finds out that Nick is stealing he feels betrayed and goes back home in Santa's sleigh.

Meanwhile, Danny's younger siblings, Kaitlyn (Brenda Grate) and Peter (Rhys Williams) find an unconscious Santa (Jefferson Mappin) on the floor of their living room. He wakes up and convinces them that he is Santa. They find out that Danny and Nick have stolen the sleigh and presents and Santa says that Danny will be on the naughty list forever. When Danny comes back he apologizes to Santa, but the sleigh is broken.

Nick is sitting at a bus stop when he sees Bill, Harry, and Eliot. They ask him where the address to his brother's house is as they don't recognize him because he is wearing a Santa costume. Nick doesn't answer them and they drive off. Nick realizes a second later they are going to his brother's house, which means that his family is in trouble. Nick, who still has Santa's device, races back to the house and get there just in time. He saves his family from the men using the device to shrink Eliot. This causes Bill, Harry, and Eliot to drive away terrified. Nick returns the device to Santa and then gives Santa his beloved laptop to fix Santa's sleigh and save Christmas.

The next morning, Nick wakes up and sees Santa has given him the guitar that he has wanted since childhood, but never got for Christmas because he was on the naughty list. He agrees to sell the guitar to pay off his debts but entertains the family by playing it first.

Lazarus (The X-Files)

Dana Scully assists a fellow FBI agent, Jack Willis, in pursuing violent bank robbers Warren Dupre and Lula Phillips. Following an anonymous tip, the two agents corner Dupre during an attempted robbery. Dupre shoots Willis with a shotgun, but is himself shot by Scully. Dupre dies, but Willis is eventually revived; however, Dupre's corpse is seen reacting to the jolts from the defibrillators used on Willis.

Willis wakes up a few days later, but now has a more sinister personality. He finds Dupre's body and cuts off his fingers to retrieve a wedding ring before fleeing the hospital. Scully explains to Fox Mulder that Willis has been obsessed with the Dupre-Phillips case for the past year, and admits to dating Willis while he was her instructor at the FBI Academy. It is discovered that left-handed shears were used to cut off Dupre's fingers, despite the fact that Willis is right-handed, leading Mulder to believe that Willis' body is inhabited by Dupre's consciousness. The agents visit a University of Maryland medical professor who theorizes that during near-death experiences, an energy release can occur that could radically change someone's personality. He points out that those who have had such experiences often are unable to wear watches, as due to the level of energy running through their body the watches cannot function.

Willis, who finds Dupre's tattoo appearing on his arm, confronts Lula's brother Tommy and kills him, believing that he sold him out to the FBI and caused his "death". When Mulder and Scully investigate the next day, Willis arrives. He passes the tests that Scully gives him, but when Mulder asks him to sign a fake birthday card for Scully—whose birthday is months away—he signs it. Scully is skeptical of Mulder's claims that Dupre is in Willis's body, believing that he is under stress due to his near-death experience.

When a landlord calls the FBI to tip them off about Phillips' location, Scully and Willis move in to capture her. However, when Scully corners Phillips, Willis holds Scully at gunpoint and forces her to instead handcuff herself. Scully is taken to Phillips' house, where she is beaten and handcuffed to a radiator. Willis then successfully convinces Phillips that he is actually Dupre. Willis calls Mulder to tell him that he and Phillips are holding Scully hostage, leaving Mulder frustrated and angry.

After seeing Willis/Dupre consume a large quantity of soda, Scully reveals that Willis is a diabetic and will require insulin to survive. Phillips and Willis/Dupre rob a pharmacy to obtain the necessary insulin. However, Phillips refuses to let Willis/Dupre use it, revealing that it was she who betrayed him, having fled the scene the night of the botched bank robbery. Phillips calls Mulder, demanding a $1 million ransom for Scully. By using audio of a plane nearby, Mulder and his task force are able to track their general location, and a disguised cop going door to door spots Phillips.

Willis/Dupre feigns death, and when Phillips drops her wedding ring on him, he grabs her gun and kills her. He dies seconds later due to the lack of insulin. Mulder, who has just arrived on the scene, releases Scully. Later Scully retrieves Willis' possessions from the morgue, including a watch she gave him for his thirty-fifth birthday. The watch stopped at 6:47, the moment Willis died after the bank shooting.Lowry, pp.134–135 Lovece, pp.81–82

Young at Heart (The X-Files)

In 1989, Joe Crandall, an inmate at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania, hears screaming from the infirmary. Inside, he discovers the prison's doctor, Joe Ridley, amputating the hand of fellow inmate John Barnett. Ridley tells Crandall that Barnett is dead, threatening him with a scalpel. However, as Crandall leaves the room, he sees Barnett blinking.

Four years later, Fox Mulder is notified by his former FBI supervisor, Reggie Purdue, about a note from a jewelry store robbery mocking Mulder by name. Mulder recognizes the message as being from Barnett, a sociopathic multiple murderer whom he helped capture on his first case with the Bureau. Even though Barnett supposedly died in prison, the note bears his handwriting. Purdue shows Dana Scully a video of Barnett's capture, which shows that Mulder didn't fire on Barnett due to him having a hostage, per FBI regulations. Mulder's hesitancy allowed Barnett to kill both the hostage and a fellow agent.

Scully looks into Barnett's cause of death and discovers that despite it being listed as heart attack, he had no history of heart problems; he had been sent to the infirmary over problems with his hand. Meanwhile, Barnett leaves Mulder another note in his car, along with photos of him and Scully. The agents visit the prison and meet Crandall, who recounts his experiences with Barnett and Ridley. Barnett makes taunting phone calls to Mulder, and strangles Purdue with a disfigured hand. Scully looks into Ridley's past and finds that his medical license was revoked for performing illegal medical trials on children with progeria, a disease that causes premature aging. Mulder theorizes that Ridley's experiments helped him find a way to reverse the aging process.

Scully summons Mulder when Ridley suddenly appears at her apartment. He tells the agents that he succeeded in making Barnett age in reverse after replacing his hand using salamander cells. However, Barnett stole Ridley's government-sponsored research. Deep Throat meets with Mulder and confirms Ridley's story, saying that the government is negotiating with Barnett to purchase Ridley's work. Scully hears someone dialing into her answering machine and spots Barnett's fingerprint on it. After Barnett calls again, Mulder decides to set up a sting operation at the cello recital for a friend of Scully's, which Barnett learned about from her answering machine.

That night, FBI agents wait at the concert hall for Barnett's arrival. Barnett, who goes completely unseen due to his youthful appearance, poses as a piano tuner. He shoots Scully in the chest during the recital and flees, taking the cellist hostage. Mulder doesn't hesitate this time around and fires at Barnett, fatally wounding him. Scully is revealed to have survived the attack, having worn a bullet-proof vest. Despite the efforts of doctors and a mysterious CIA agent to resuscitate Barnett, he dies, and takes the secrets of Ridley's research to the grave. The episode ends with a close-up of a locker in a train station, implying the secrets are contained within and will one day be discovered.Lowry, pp.136–137 Lovece, pp.83–84

Miracle Man (The X-Files)

In 1983, a young boy, Samuel Hartley, appears at the scene of a car accident and pushes his way past an emergency crew. He opens a body bag and commands the severely burnt cadaver inside to "rise up and heal." Samuel's father, Calvin, convinces a fireman to let him continue. The body inside the bag comes alive, grabbing Samuel's hand.

Ten years later, Dana Scully shows Fox Mulder a videotape of a religious service led by the now-grown Samuel (Scott Bairstow), who has become an evangelical faith healer for a ministry run by Calvin. The video shows a supposed healing which later left the follower dead. The agents travel to Clarksville, Tennessee, where they attend a service featuring an enthusiastic sermon by Leonard Vance, the man whom Samuel raised from the dead a decade earlier. The agents learn from Calvin that Samuel has gone missing.

Samuel eventually turns up drunk at a local bar, his faith shaken by the death. He is taken into custody. The agents doubt his ability, but he is able to convince Mulder that he knows the latter has lost a sister—Samantha—at a young age. Mulder has been seeing visions of Samantha, and continues to see them. At Samuel's bail hearing, the courtroom fills with a swarm of locusts, which Samuel claims is a sign of God's wrath against him.

Once he is released, Samuel returns to his ministry and attempts to heal a woman in a wheelchair. However, she suffers a seizure and dies, which leads to Samuel's second arrest. An autopsy reveals the woman died of cyanide poisoning, while Mulder and Scully find evidence that the swarm of locusts, which were actually common grasshoppers, was guided by someone to the courtroom through the building's ventilation system. Mulder believes Samuel to be innocent. However, the local sheriff, Maurice Daniels, allows two of his men to beat Samuel to death in his cell.

At his home, Vance is confronted by a ghostly vision of Samuel, who accuses him of betraying the church and perpetrating the murders. Vance confesses and blames his bitterness at having been resurrected with such a scarred and deformed visage. Mulder and Scully, who have been able to trace a large purchase of grasshoppers to Vance, arrive to find the man dying of cyanide poisoning from his own glass of water. He confesses to the agents before falling dead.

As the agents prepare to finish work on the case, they receive a phone call and learn that Samuel's body has gone missing from the morgue, and witnesses have seen him walking around, badly bruised. Meanwhile, Sheriff Daniels is arrested by one of his deputies for questioning by the district attorney over Samuel's death. As Mulder and Scully leave Tennessee, Samuel's ministry closes down, and Mulder sees one last vision of his missing sister before he gets into his car.

Shapes (The X-Files)

FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder travel to Browning, Montana to investigate the killing of a Native American man, Joseph Goodensnake, by local rancher Jim Parker. The killing appears to be motivated by a dispute over the ownership of a tract of land, although Parker claims that he fired on a monstrous animal rather than a human. Parker's son, Lyle, bears scars that lend credence to the story.

At the scene of the shooting, Scully reasons that at the short range from which Goodensnake was shot, it would have been impossible to mistake him for an animal. However, Mulder finds tracks leading to the area that appear to change from human to something more animal in nature. Scully dismisses this, but finds a large section of shed human skin nearby. She believes that the Parkers knowingly killed Goodensnake, but knows that they could not have skinned him since no signs of such injury were found on the body.

The investigation is complicated by the hostility Mulder and Scully face from the Native American population, stemming from their experience with the FBI during the 1973 Wounded Knee incident. Goodensnake's sister Gwen is also bitter that her neighbors are too frightened of native legends to confront his death. The local sheriff, Charles Tskany, permits Scully to make a cursory examination of Goodensnake's body but forbids a full autopsy. They discover that he had elongated canines, similar to those of an animal, and bears long-healed scars similar to Lyle's.

Mulder tells Scully of a similar incident in the area forty years previously, which was investigated by J. Edgar Hoover and became the FBI's first X-File case. As the agents watch Goodensnake's body being cremated in a traditional ceremony, Mulder shares with Scully his belief that the culprits in both the current case and Hoover's investigation are werewolves. Scully dismisses this theory and instead credits the belief to clinical lycanthropy. Jim Parker is subsequently ripped apart by an unseen animal outside his home, and Lyle is found naked and unconscious a few hundred yards away.

Ish, one of the elder men of the reservation, explains to Mulder the legend of the manitou, a creature which can possess and transform a man and can pass to a new host, through a bite, or upon the death of the original host. Ish believes he had seen the creature in his youth, but was too frightened to confront it. He says it happens every eight years to someone in the region, and that it has been that long since the last sighting of a possible manitou.

Mulder calls the medical examiner, who tells him that Scully has taken Lyle back to the ranch, and Jim's blood type was found in Lyle's stomach. Mulder and Tskany hurry to the Parker ranch. After firing on the creature, which escapes unharmed, Mulder finds Scully hiding upstairs. They search for the creature, which is shot by Tskany as it lunges to attack them. Scully expresses disbelief on seeing Lyle’s body, believing they were attacked by a captive mountain lion; Tskany replies that the lion is still in its cage. As the agents leave, they learn that Gwen has left town, while Ish cryptically warns Mulder, "FBI... See you in about... eight years". As Mulder and Scully drive away, a wolf is heard howling in the forest.

Darkness Falls (The X-Files)

In Olympic National Forest in Washington state, a group of loggers flee through the woods, trying to escape from an unseen force. They are eventually killed by a large swarm of small glowing green insects. Later, at FBI headquarters, Fox Mulder shows Dana Scully a photo of the missing loggers, telling her that another group of loggers disappeared in the forest in 1934. The two agents head to the forest, where they meet U.S. Forest Service employee Larry Moore and Steve Humphreys, head of security for the logging company. While driving through the forest, their truck hits caltrops left in the ground by eco-terrorists, forcing them to walk the rest of the way. Upon arriving at the camp site, Mulder and Scully find the cabins abandoned and the communication equipment destroyed. Searching the forest, they find a corpse encased in a large cocoon hanging from a tree.

While repairing one of the generators, Humphreys catches an eco-terrorist named Doug Spinney. He tells the group that there's a deadly swarm of insects in the forest and that they must avoid darkness to stay alive. The next morning, they find an old-growth tree cut down with an unexplained band of green contained within its growth rings. Spinney suspects that an organism that was dormant in the tree for centuries was disturbed when the tree was illegally cut down. Humphreys hikes down to Moore's truck, but is killed by the swarm at nightfall. In the cabin, everyone else is kept safe by the light. The next morning, Spinney convinces Mulder to let him hike to his colleagues with gasoline so he can return with a Jeep to pick them up. Scully and Moore confront Mulder, since this will leave them with little fuel for the generator.

The night passes with only a single light bulb lighting the cabin, going out just as morning arrives. Mulder, Scully and Moore hike down to the truck with a busted tire from camp, hoping to patch it, put on the spare and escape. They find Humphreys dead. Spinney returns with the Jeep, telling the others his friends are all dead. The Jeep hits another spike left in the ground, and Spinney is killed when he leaves the Jeep after dark. Moore and the agents are engulfed by the insects, which enter the vehicle through the air conditioning vents. They are found soon after and brought to a quarantined facility in Winthrop, Washington, where one of the scientists tells Mulder that the forest is being bombarded with pesticides and controlled fire in the hopes of eradicating the insects. Mulder asks the scientist what will happen if the efforts fail, but is simply told "that is not an option."Lowry pp.145–146 Lovece, pp.94–95

F. Emasculata

In the rain forest of Costa Rica, entomologist Robert Torrance stumbles upon a decomposing boar carcass covered with purple pustules. As he examines one of the pustules, it erupts, spraying him with fluid. By nightfall, he himself has developed the boils and tries to radio for help. When a group of soldiers arrive the next morning, Torrance is dead.

At a prison in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, an inmate also called Robert Torrance receives a package containing a leg of meat. Later, a pustule errupts from the meat and Torrance dies thirty-six hours later. Two other inmates, Paul and Steve are sent to clean Torrance's cell but escape in a laundry cart. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are sent to help the U.S. Marshals find them. The agents become suspicious as the prison is quarantined by the CDC and the National Guard. Mulder joins the Marshals to hunt the fugitives, while Scully stays behind to investigate the situation in the prison.

Scully learns that the lockdown population is infected with an exceedingly deadly contagion, finding a pile of body bags stored for incineration in the prison's boiler room. Scully cuts open Torrance's body bag and examines his corpse, but Dr. Osbourne, a member of the CDC team, tries to stop her. A pustule on Torrance's body erupts in Osbourne's face, causing him to flee the room. Scully traces Torrance's package to Pinck Pharmaceuticals, a major drug developer. She also finds an insect in the body of another prisoner. Dr. Osbourne, now visibly infected, reveals that his team works for Pinck and is researching a dilating enzyme produced by the insect. However, the insect has a parasitic life cycle that kills its hosts. Osbourne claims that the insect and its contagion were deliberately introduced into the prison by Pinck as an experiment. Osbourne soon dies from the contagion and his body is incinerated in the prison boiler room.

Meanwhile, the fugitives steal a campervan and stop at a gas station. Paul calls his girlfriend, Elizabeth, looking for shelter. The fugitives knock out the gas station clerk and flee in his car, evading the Marshals' raid on the gas station. Mulder sees a CDC biohazard team arrive at the scene, forcibly taking away the clerk in a helicopter. Scully calls Mulder, telling him that the contagion could spread into the population if the fugitives are not captured. The fugitives arrive at Elizabeth's house, where she tends to Steve in the late stages of his infection. As Steve is dying, one of his pustules erupts in Elizabeth's face, infecting her. At that moment, Mulder and the Marshals raid the house and arrest her. However, Paul is still missing.

Mulder confronts Skinner and The Smoking Man, believing that he and Scully were deceived into taking the case without knowing about the contagion. Mulder is adamant that the public should know the truth, but the Smoking Man counters that that would create mass panic and cost more lives. Mulder consults with Scully, but she agrees that exposing Pinck may result in a deadly hysteria.

Questioning the jailed Elizabeth, Mulder finds out that Paul is planning to flee to Toronto by bus. Mulder and the Marshals track down and surround Paul's bus and Mulder tries to talk to Paul, who is the last remaining piece of evidence of the infection. A panicking Paul takes a teenage boy hostage but Mulder persuades him to let the boy go. Before Paul can divulge any information about the infection, he is shot dead by the Marshals.

Later, Mulder confronts Skinner in his office. Mulder is bent on making the affair public, while Skinner warns him that he has no evidence. Scully interjects that Pinck deliberately sent the package to a namesake of the dead entomologist, not only to experiment on prisoners, but so that their involvement could be chalked up to a simple postal error and that the agents' investigation could be discredited. Skinner warns Mulder to be more wary of the situations he will find himself in.Lowry, p. 216–17.

Roland (The X-Files)

At a physics research lab, intellectually disabled janitor Roland Fuller is scolded by scientist Keats for forgetting how to use the facility's keycard locks. Keats walks in on his colleagues, Frank Nollette and Ronald Surnow, arguing over a prototype jet engine. After Keats and Nollette leave, Surnow enters the facility's wind tunnel to make adjustments. However, Roland activates the tunnel's turbines, killing Surnow. Roland examines the scientists' whiteboard and changes some of its equations.

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate Surnow's death. Scully learns another member of the research team, Arthur Grable, had died several months earlier, and suspects industrial espionage. Mulder examines the handwriting on the whiteboard and concludes it was written by at least four different people, suggesting a fourth individual was present. Keats and Nollette both inform the agents that Roland was the only one left in the facility at the time of Surnow's death, but do not believe him capable of murder.

Nevertheless, Mulder and Scully visit Roland at his care home, where he denies seeing anything unusual. He displays his mathematical prowess by rapidly counting the star designs on Scully's blouse; however, his handwriting does not match the fourth sample from the whiteboard. The discussion ends when Roland experiences a violent vision involving Keats's head being frozen and has what seems to be a fit. Later, Roland has another vision of someone killing Keats. He appears at the lab and submerges Keats's head in a tank of liquid nitrogen, shattering it before typing at a computer. The next day, the agents notice the computer was used hours after Keats's death and realize that the number Roland had written on an art project previously is the password to files containing the work of Arthur Grable, which have been worked on since his death.

Investigating Grable's death, the agents learn he had hired Roland. They suspect Grable faked his death and is killing his colleagues, using Roland as a patsy. Grable's body was never brought to the morgue, nor was a funeral held. However, Nollette brings the agents to a cryogenic facility where Grable's remains are being stored. A photo of Grable reveals he is Roland's identical twin. Mulder becomes convinced that Roland is being periodically controlled by Grable.

Nollette sneaks into the cryogenic facility and sabotages Grable's unit, thawing his remains. Roland returns to the lab and is in the process of pushing the prototype engine to mach 15 when Nollette enters. Nollette admits to stealing Grable's work and prepares to shoot Roland; when he is distracted, Roland strikes him and drags him into the wind tunnel. The agents arrive in time to convince Roland not to kill Nollette. At the same time, the rising temperatures in the cryogenic unit kill Grable. Roland is taken from his care home to a psychiatric institute for testing. As he leaves, he combs his hair in the style of his brother, suggesting he is not free of Grable's control.

Little Green Men (The X-Files)

In the episode's prologue, Fox Mulder narrates a history of NASA's Voyager program and the now-defunct High Resolution Microwave Survey, which sought to contact extraterrestrial life in outer space. At the Survey's abandoned observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the equipment inside suddenly activates, indicating a response from an alien intelligence.

Since the closure of the X-Files, the FBI has reassigned Mulder to a low-level wiretap while his former partner, Dana Scully, has returned to teaching at the FBI Academy. The two have a discreet meeting at the parking lot of the Watergate Hotel, where Mulder admits that he has been doubting his belief in the paranormal since Deep Throat's assassination. Mulder flashes back to the night when his sister, Samantha, was abducted.

Mulder is summoned to a meeting with Richard Matheson, a U.S. senator who is a patron for his work. Matheson directs Mulder to Arecibo, assuring the agent that he will try to hold off a Blue Beret UFO retrieval team said to be headed there in twenty-four hours. Mulder arrives at the Survey station, where he finds a frightened Puerto Rican man, Jorge, who draws a picture of an alien that he claims to have seen. Meanwhile, Scully, unaware of Mulder's whereabouts, tries to find him. Reviewing a list of flights from Washington, Scully tracks Mulder down to Puerto Rico.

Mulder discovers a signal, possibly originating from an extraterrestrial intelligence. During a storm, Jorge gets scared and runs outside. Mulder finds him dead of fright. When Scully goes to an airport to fly to Puerto Rico, she realizes she's being tracked by a couple, but manages to escape from them. Meanwhile, as Mulder investigates Jorge's corpse, the room shakes. The door opens and the shadowy figure of an alien appears. Scully wakes Mulder up the next morning, finding him excited about the readouts and tapes of the signals—the proof of aliens he has sought for so long. However, the Blue Beret team arrives, forcing them to flee with only a tape reel.

Upon his return to Washington, Mulder is admonished by Assistant Director Walter Skinner and the Smoking Man for his actions. Mulder claims he still had enough evidence with the days missed to prosecute the subject of his assigned wiretap, and that his own phone calls were being monitored. Skinner then demands that the Smoking Man leave the room, and decides to not discipline Mulder. Investigating the tape reel, Mulder finds it blank due to a power surge during the storm, but vows to continue his work regardless.Lowry, pp. 161–63.

The Host (The X-Files)

On a Russian freighter off the coast of New Jersey, a crewman trying to fix the ship's toilets is pulled into the septic system. His half-eaten body appears in the sewers of Newark days later. Fox Mulder is assigned the case and visits with a Detective Norman in Newark, being shown the still-unidentified body. Mulder angrily confronts Assistant Director Walter Skinner, feeling he has been given the seeming "wild goose chase" as a form of punishment.

That night, Mulder talks to Dana Scully, telling her that he's thinking of leaving the FBI. He shoots down Scully's idea that he request a transfer to Quantico, believing the FBI doesn't want them working together. Scully performs the autopsy on the crewman's body, finding a Russian language tattoo on his arm and a flukeworm inside his liver.

In Newark, a city worker named Craig is pulled underwater in the sewers but is rescued by his co-worker. He believes he was attacked by a python. He decides to visit a doctor (with Mulder observing) and complains of a weird taste in his mouth. An abnormal four-pointed wound appears on his back during a medical examination in Sayreville, New Jersey. Scully then calls Mulder, telling him that she found a parasite in the crewman's body and that he should see it. Mulder shortly afterwards receives another call from a mysterious man telling him he has a friend at the FBI. When Scully meets Mulder, she shows Mulder the flukeworm she found, whose mouth, though much smaller, matches the wound on the city worker's back. That night, the city worker coughs up a flukeworm in his shower. Mulder visits a sewage processing plant and Charlie, an elderly sewage company employee, finds a large humanoid with a fluke-like mouth.

At Quantico, someone slips a newspaper article under Scully's door enabling her to identify the original body as a crew member on a Russian ship. Mulder and Scully meet at the processing plant and they look at the strange, fluke-like man. Skinner wants to prosecute the creature and subject it to a psychiatric evaluation, which Mulder thinks would be difficult. Skinner tells Mulder of Craig's death and admits that this would have been an X-File had they still been open. Mulder raises his discontentment claiming that with X-Files, a certain pair of agents could have saved a life. Skinner simply responds saying everyone takes their orders from someone, implying the decision was not his and came from higher up the chain of command.

That night workers put the flukeman into a U.S. Marshal's van unrestrained, but it kills the driver and escapes to a local campsite. The flukeman hides in a portable toilet and is suctioned into a truck's tank the next day when the toilet is drained. Mulder receives another phone call from the mysterious caller telling him that success on his current work is imperative so that the X-Files be reinstated undeniably. When he questions Scully about it, she denies any involvement. The flukeman is brought back to the processing plant. Scully believes that the flukeworm she found in the body is a larva, attempting to reproduce. The flukeman is spotted in a storm drain overflow. As Mulder and a processing plant worker investigate, the worker is pulled underwater by the flukeman. Mulder heads in and saves him, apparently killing the flukeman by closing a sewer grate on it, slicing it in half. Scully concludes her investigation, thinking that the creature was brought to the U.S. by a Russian freighter that was hauling salvage material from Chernobyl, and that the creature was created in a 'soup' of radioactive sewage. Elsewhere, the flukeman's remains open its eyes.Lowry, pp.164–165 Lovece, pp.109–111

### Continuity

In the 2013 comic continuation of ''The X-Files'' called ''Season 10'' two stories—"Hosts", part one and two—continued on the story of "The Host" almost twenty years later after the events of this episode. According to the comics, the Flukeman escaped and travelled to Martha's Vineyard where it began to multiply, abducting multiple beach-goers. The Flukeman and his offspring were nearly all killed, however, by local sheriff Michael Simmons (who later told the agents in "Hosts, Part 2" that his real name was Mikhail Simonov and he served as one of the Soviet Army's liquidators during the Chernobyl disaster). In addition, "Hosts, Part 2" expanded upon the backstory of the Flukeman, revealing that he was a Soviet liquidator named Gregory, who, after being locked in a sewage tanker truck in Chernobyl, gestated the mutated flukeworm that grew into the original Flukeman after he was exposed to irradiated cooling water from the still-burning Reactor No. 4 and to flatworms in the sewage tank.

Blood (The X-Files)

In Franklin, Pennsylvania, postal worker Edward Funsch (William Sanderson) is informed that he will be laid off at the end of the week. Afterwards, Funsch sees the words "Kill 'Em All" on his machine's digital display. At Franklin's civic center, a middle-aged man in a crowded elevator sees "No Air" displayed on the elevator's LED display, and is the only one who can see the message. Sweating and obviously claustrophobic, he again glances at the LED display. This time it flashes the words "Can't Breathe" and then "Kill 'Em All."

Agent Fox Mulder arrives at the civic center after what looks like a massacre; bodies lie on the sidewalk and in the foyer. Sheriff Spencer (John Cygan) explains that the suspect murdered four people from the elevator with his bare hands. His rampage ended when he was shot by a security guard. Spencer notes that seven other individuals have murdered twenty-two people in Franklin in the past six months. Mulder discovers that the LED display in the elevator has been damaged, and that the dead suspect has a green residue on his fingertips.

Later on, Funsch tries to make a withdrawal from an ATM, but is greeted with the words "Take His Gun" and "Kill 'Em All" on the screen. He frustratedly beats the screen before running away, escaping from a confused security guard.

At the FBI Academy, Dana Scully reads Mulder's initial report. The only connection between the murders that he can see is that the suspects all destroyed an electronic device during the killings. Meanwhile, Bonnie McRoberts, another Franklin resident, drops by a repair shop to pick up her car, where a message on an engine diagnostic display warns her that the mechanic is going to rape her. She impulsively kills him with an oil can spout. When Mulder and Spencer question her the next morning, her kitchen microwave instructs her to kill them. When she grabs a knife and attacks Mulder, she is shot and killed by Spencer.

Scully performs an autopsy on McRoberts' body and discovers signs of phobia including high levels of adrenaline and the same substance found on the elevator killer. She hypothesizes that the substance, when combined with other neurochemicals, produces an LSD-like reaction. While Mulder and Scully build a case, Funsch becomes more psychotic, continuing to see violent messages on electronic gadgets. Blood is associated in some way with each incident; a volunteer asks Ed to donate blood at a department store and seconds later he sees several violent images flash across a sales display of TV sets, followed by a message to get a gun from the sporting goods department.

Late at night, while investigating an orchard, Mulder is sprayed by a crop-dusting helicopter and ends up in the hospital. There, Mulder sees the message "Do It Now" on a TV and realizes that when people are exposed to the pesticide, which contains a chemical called LSDM designed to provoke fear in insects, they see these subliminal messages, and their phobias are exacerbated enough to cause them to kill. Eventually, after being confronted, the city councilman agrees to stop the spraying and blood test the community under the guise of a cholesterol study. Mulder and Scully, reading that Funsch has not been tested yet, arrive at his house to find it strewn with smashed electronic devices. Mulder deduces that blood is Ed's phobia and that he has seen the subliminal messages, and an empty rifle case signals that Funsch is going to act on his paranoia. Funsch positions himself at the top of a clock tower overlooking a blood drive and begins shooting randomly. Mulder climbs up to Funsch and overpowers him; Funsch is taken away on a stretcher. Mulder makes a call to Scully and sees the message "All done. Bye Bye" on his cell phone display. Scully calls out to Mulder but he is speechless.Lowry, pp. 166–167

Sugar Town (film)

Clive, Jonesey and Nick form an aging supergroup built of refugees from other bands. They and their producer Burt seek backing from Jane, a rich investor who will only help if the lead singer will sleep with her.

Liz is a neurotic film production designer who has just hired a conniving young housekeeper and would-be singer named Gwen. Liz searches hopelessly for a decent man while Gwen commits acts of shameless cruelty in the service of her ambition.

Best friend to Liz is Clive's wife Eva, an older actress who is struggling to get good roles. Clive and Eva's life is thrown into upheaval when a cult member shows up on their doorstep to drop off a surly 12-year-old "love child" that she claims Clive fathered.

A subplot involves guitarist Carl, who is hired to travel away from his pregnant wife by a singer with ulterior motives, just as his junkie brother emerges from rehab and comes to stay with the family.

Barricade (2007 film)

The film follows three friends, Nina (Brown), Michael (Zaso) and David (Reissig), as they travel to the Black Forest of Germany. While there, the trio are attacked by a family of deformed mountain people who murder and cannibalize anyone who ventures into their secluded territory.

Vampires: The Turning

Connor (Colin Egglesfield) and Amanda (Meredith Monroe) are vacationing in Thailand during that year's Songkran festival. Connor, trained since childhood in Muay Thai (Thai boxing), takes Amanda to see a match. However, Amanda cannot take the brutality and goes back to their hotel alone.

On the way, she gets lost in the Phang Nga market, and Mr Nice Guy (Dom Hetrakul) offers to show her the way to her hotel. He leads her on a short cut down a deserted alley, then turns into the vampire Niran, drinking her blood and carrying her off on a motorcycle. Connor tries to follow, but he is stopped by another vampire, obviously intent on killing him. Just as the vampire is about to succeed, a bald-headed man appears and chops off the vampire's head. Connor begs for his help finding Amanda, but he warns Connor to leave Thailand immediately and threatens to kill Connor if he follows him. Connor stealthily follows Kiko (Roger Yuan) home to Kong Sai House.

When the police refuse to consider Amanda missing until 48 hours have passed, Connor goes back to Kong Sai House, only to find the people asleep. While snooping through the house, Connor is attacked by Sang (Stephanie Chao). Connor gets away from her by jumping out a window. As Connor lands on the ground below, he is stopped by vampire slayer Raines (Patrick Bauchau) who insists on testing Connor's blood to see if he is infected. When Connor comes up clean, he begs Raines to help him find Amanda but, like Kiko, Raines warns him to leave Thailand.

Connor won't accept it and returns again to Kong Sai House. While there, he sees a photo of Niran in front of the Techno Games Arcade near the Phang Nga market. Figuring that Niran might have taken Amanda there, he snoops around. He finds Amanda being held in a cell with skeletons, carcasses, and other humans in various stages of having their blood drained. Amanda and Connor escape but are attacked outside by two ''jai tham'' (vampires who drink human blood) on a motorcycle. One drives off with Amanda; the other stays to kill Connor but he is saved by Sang and makes their escape on motorcycle.

The day of the eclipse is upon them. Since Sang's embrace of the sun must take place in the same spot where the curse began 800 years ago (a couple blocks away), the ''song neng'' have made a deal with Raines. Raines and his slayers will line the buildings and walls that overlook the site, which looks like an archeological dig, in order to kill any ''jai tham'' who try to stop Sang. Connor, Kiko, and the rest of the ''song neng'' will help Sang get to the required spot. The eclipse starts at 3:00, and they will have 17 minutes to do the job.

The ''jai tham'' arrive on their motorcycles. In the melee that follows, Connor and Niran fall through a weak spot into a pit where they continue fighting. Time is running out, and Kiko realizes that the slayers have double-crossed them. The slayers open fire, shooting all vampires, both ''song neng'' and ''jai tham''. Only Connor and Niran remain protected in their hole. Connor manages to impale Niran, but when he surfaces from the pit, Connor finds only bodies. He shouts for Sang, but there is no answer. Raines walks up, gloating over how much he will get for all the vampire heads AND those in the future. If Sang ends the curse, he explains, there's no more vampires, and he's in the vampire hunting business.

Connor locates Sang as Raines turns his crossbow on her. Connor offers to shoot Sang so that she does not have to suffer. Raines hands his bow to Connor. Connor aims at Sang but suddenly swings his aim to Raines. Forcing Raines to carry Sang to the designated spot, Connor gives her one last kiss before the sun reappears. She explodes, taking Raines with her, and the curse has been lifted. Connor hurries back to the ''jai tham'''s base and rescues Amanda.

Skin (short story)

An old man named Drioli walks through the streets of Paris. When he passes by an art gallery and sees a painting by Chaïm Soutine, he reminisces about a time long-ago when they were friends. Over thirty years earlier, Soutine had been in love with Drioli's wife Josie, and on a particular day in autumn 1913, Drioli, a tattoo artist, had to work on nine clients, most of whom had paid in cash. This resulted in unusually large earnings for that day, and he had decided to celebrate by buying three bottles of wine. When he had become drunk, Drioli asked Soutine to paint a picture of Josie on Drioli's back and then tattoo over it, which Soutine agreed to. After the First World War, Soutine was discovered by a dealer and sent to Céret, and Drioli and Josie moved their tattoo business to Le Havre. During the Second World War, Josie died and Drioli lost his business, being forced into panhandling.

Drioli enters the art gallery, and shows the crowd his incredible tattoo. Several people make bids for it, also inquiring after Drioli's health because the picture actually does not have any value as long as he is alive. Two men in particular offer unusual proposals. One says he will pay for a skin-grafting operation so that the artwork may be removed from Drioli's back, and that he will also pay for the artwork thus obtained; other patrons warn that Drioli would never survive the surgery. The other man, claiming to be the owner of the Bristol Hotel in Cannes, asks Drioli to become an employee of the hotel and to live a life of luxury while exhibiting his back to the guests, somewhat like a model. Drioli, who is hungry, accepts the latter's proposal and leaves the gallery with him.

The narrator then explains that there is no Bristol Hotel in Cannes, and that a heavily varnished painting matching the description of Drioli's tattoo turned up for sale at an auction in Buenos Aires a few weeks later, and that this "causes one to wonder a little, and to pray for the old man's health, and to hope fervently that wherever he may be at this moment, there is a plump attractive girl to manicure the nails of his fingers, and a maid to bring him breakfast in bed in the mornings".

Neighbors (1981 film)

Low-key, ineffectual, middle-class suburbanite Earl Keese's peaceful, dreary life changes when a younger couple, Vic and Ramona Zeck, move in next door. Upon arrival, the Zecks immediately impose themselves on the Keese household, with Earl infuriated with the loud, gung-ho Vic, and flustered by the sly and seductive Ramona. Earl is frustratingly unable to handle them, and can never produce any proof that the couple are deliberately doing anything wrong. Earl's wife Enid and teenage daughter Elaine are unhelpful, and one night, the antagonism between Earl and the Zecks escalates into suburban warfare. Initially questioning his family's sanity, Earl soon realizes that the Zecks have provided him with the most excitement he's had in years and that they can give him a promising future, apart from suburbia and away from his family. In the film's closing scene, Earl joins the couple, abandoning his family and his burning house.

The Scream Team

Two children, Ian and Claire, move into a town where their grandfather has just died. Ian thinks his grandfather's spirit is trying to tell them something, finding some library news clippings about a man named Zachariah Kull, who was accused of burning his home with his wife in it. Later, Ian and Claire capture a ghost named Jumper (a dead skydiver) who ends up freed by his partner, Coffin Ed (a Revolutionary soldier). They follow them and other ghostly wisps of air into the forest, where they find an abandoned building. Entering, they find arriving ghosts entering a mirror, which leads to the afterlife. Ed and Jumper's boss, Mariah (a dead bride) isn't too pleased with this. Ian and Claire learn that they look for souls that don't want to cross over, and are dubbed the "Soul Patrol" by Jumper; they ended up with these jobs while waiting for their turn to cross over.

In exchange for letting their grandfather complete anything he wants finished before moving on, the children discover that Zachariah has kidnapped him to increase his powers. The children join forces with the Soul Patrol, to destroy Zachariah and release all the captured souls. They confront Zachariah at an abandoned mine, where Mariah is able to parry his fireballs, but finds he's gained new powers; Jumper ends up captured, further increasing Zachariah's strength. In the end they discover Zachariah was really a misunderstood inventor experimenting with natural gas, and one of his inventions accidentally burned his wife to death. When he was killed, Zachariah told his wife to wait for him, knowing he wouldn't be able to cross over due to desiring revenge against his injustice. At the festival that honors the villain everyone thinks him to be, Zachariah emerges from a burning effigy. However, Claire and Ian reveal the truth, reminding Zachariah that his wife is still waiting for him to cross over. Zachariah releases all of the trapped spirits and finally moves on.

The children and their father return home to find the grandfather's spirit waiting for them; the Soul Patrol kept their promise to let him take care of his unfinished business. He reveals how proud he is of his son, something he never did in life; when asked if he has to leave right away, the grandfather explains "eternity can wait awhile" and spends time catching up with his son before moving on. The family decides to stay in town, which is changing from bashing the formerly evil ghost to telling the truth about him.

During the day, Ian and Claire visit the Soul Patrol, finding only Jumper and Ed, who explain that Mariah is talking to their bosses in the next world. Mariah returns, explaining that the little spectacle they caused to put an end to Zachariah's terror exposed the fact there is an afterlife; she is left anguished by this as she was almost done working for them, and the punishment is the extension of Mariah, Jumper and Coffin Ed's jobs. Ed visits them while they carve pumpkins with an invention of their grandfather's, avoiding getting hit by debris thanks to being a ghost – "There are some advantages to being dead."

Farmer's Daughters

Shep (Colt) and Kate (Gloria Leonard) run a farm. Their daughters, Martha (Susan McBain), Jane (Nancy Dare) and Beth (Marlene Willoughby) also live on the farm as well as a farmhand named Fred (Bill Cort). The film starts as Fred ridicules the three daughters for peeping on their parents having sex. In return, the three daughters join up to carry him off. Their parents notice the commotion, but think their daughters just want to toy with him. Alas, the daughters push him into a bed and proceed to mount and gang rape him which includes subjecting him to facesitting. After they are done, Martha spits his own semen on his face. They then warn him not to tell their parents what they did. To stress the point, Beth whips his bottom with a flyswatter while Jane scratches him painfully. After they all urinate on him, they start gang raping him once again – at this point three escaped convicts walk by and see them.

The convicts (with their leader, George, played by Spalding Gray who would later become famous for his mainstream acting and monologue work) continue on to the parents' house and stop them in mid-intercourse. One of the convicts rapes Kate while another makes Shep watch and the third goes back to get the daughters. The first two convicts then knock out Shep and gang rape Kate together.

The daughters walk by the house and see their parents tied up naked and gagged. After they remove his gag, Shep tells them to run away, but outside they stumble into the convict who was sent to bring them earlier. The three convicts then rape the three daughters in front of their nude parents in a twisted game of Simon says, until a returning Fred steals the convicts' sole shotgun.

Fred holds the convicts at gunpoint, but does the same to the family, telling them they have to pay for what the daughters did to him earlier. The convicts don't take him seriously and so he fatally shoots one of them. Turning back to the family, Fred orders the daughters' mother Kate to give him fellatio.

Interested to punish the family by making them engage in incest, Fred orders Martha to give a likewise fellatio to her own father Shep. After this, Fred makes the three daughters have sex with their mother Kate and orders the remaining convicts to urinate on the women. As Fred does the same, Shep is able to get hold of the shotgun and kill Fred.

The entire plot is then fast forwarded in reverse chronology, until it is revealed this was all a daydream that Fred was having while he was being urinated on by the farmer's daughters after they finished gang-raping him. The film ends as they splash water on him to "clean him up".

Layer Cake (novel)

On April Fools' Day in 1997, the narrator, and his pal Mister Mortimer are waiting impatiently to sell a half-kilo of cocaine to a less-than-punctual pal, Jeremy. Until Jeremy arrives, readers are introduced to various characters and are given a brief look into their histories, including Jimmy Price; Mister Mortimer (Morty), who served five and a quarter years of an eight-year sentence for being caught while disposing of suicide victim Kilburn Jerry after a party; young Clarkie, whom the narrator expects to take his place when he retires; and Terry, friend to all. The narrator also explains to the readers how he made it to where he is—starting small, growing in rank, keeping quiet and making sure everything is strictly business. Jeremy eventually arrives half an hour late to make the purchase.

Narrator is invited to Mortimer's porn shop, Loveland, and interrupts an argument between Mort and an employee, Nobby, who is confused on what to do over a shipment from the Netherlands of low-quality sex gear that they did not order. They decide to send it back. Mort then drives the narrator to a fancy, out-of-the-way restaurant called Pepi's Barn, the haunt of "don" Jimmy Price, who has demanded to meet with him. Here the reader is introduced to Jimmy's right-hand man Gene, a loyal gundog to boot. The purpose of the dinner, as it turns out, is the disappearance of a young girl name of Charlotte Temple. Charlotte (''aka'' Charlie) is the daughter of Edward Temple, a wealthy business contractor and socialite whom Price has known since childhood. She has run away with her new boyfriend, a cokehead by the name of Trevor Atkins, alias Kinky. Price charges the narrator with the task of locating Charlotte as a favour to Jimmy's pal, and promises that if he is successful, Price will allow him to retire without fuss.

Price also tells the narrator about a crew of gangsters who have recently acquired two million high quality Ecstasy pills from Amsterdam. Price tasks the narrator with finding a buyer for the pills, and quickly. During the meeting with the gangsters, collectively known as the "Yahoos," the narrator finds that he cannot reason with them, and he leaves upon promising to find a buyer for the pills, albeit at a much lower price than if the Yahoos would consent to releasing the pills in small instalments. The narrator tells the Yahoos that the pills are worth much less than they believe, which they are not happy to hear.

The narrator tasks his old friend Cody, also known as Billy Bogus and his partner Tiptoes with locating Charlie. Cody expects little difficulty and quickly accepts the job. While looking for Cody in a London club, the narrator encounters Sydney, a low-ranking member of the Yahoos. The narrator then meets Sydney's girlfriend Tammy, to whom he is immediately attracted. Before leaving the club, Tammy gives him her number and surreptitiously asks him to call her. While speaking with Sydney, the narrator hears a story about the leader of Sydney's crew, a man named Darren who prefers to be known as The Duke. The Duke and his girlfriend, Slasher, are a pair of dedicated coke addicts who live just outside London. The pair of them have become steadily more paranoid due to their cocaine use, and this paranoia leads Slasher to attack a member of the local council with pepper spray when he visits their home. Slasher also manages to kill one of the Duke's prized Dobermans, Mike Tyson, by shooting it. Sydney thinks the story is hilarious, but the narrator panics upon realising that the Duke probably had his number along with Mister Mortimer's, and the police could very well have information on them now.

The narrator sets about finding a buyer for the ecstasy pills, and he, Mortimer and Clarkie go to Liverpool to meet with Trevor and Shanks, two powerful North England drug dealers. Upon their arrival, Shanks tells the narrator and his colleagues that the Yahoos have in fact stolen the pills from a neo-Nazi outfit in Amsterdam, and they used the narrator and Mortimers' names to gain credibility. Shanks tells the narrator that the Germans have unleashed an assassin named Klaus to recover the pills and eliminate the thieves. Unfortunately for the narrator, Klaus believes that he was the one who initiated the robbery. The meeting ends and Trevor invites the narrator to come to dinner at his house. The narrator has a nightmare involving Jimmy Price and awakes to a television news story about the brutal torture and murder of a boatman named Van Tuck. At Trevor's house, Trevor and the narrator are discussing the state of the drugs game when the narrator offhandedly mentions Van Tuck's murder. Trevor flies into a panic and takes the narrator to see Duncan, a local reporter who is friendly with many police officers and feeds Trevor information. On the way, Trevor explains that Van Tuck was a smuggler and he was currently moving several million pounds' worth of marijuana into the country for Trevor. Trevor's hope is that Van Tuck had not yet picked up the shipment, but there is a strong possibility that the police will have confiscated the drugs during their investigation of Van Tuck's murder. Through Duncan, Trevor discovers that the cannabis has been seized by the police and after destroying many of Duncan's possessions in a rage, the action moves back to London.

The narrator and Morty receive a call from Cody, telling them that he has located Kinky, Charlie's boyfriend, in a flat in King's Cross. Upon arriving at the flat, the men find that Kinky is dead of a heroin overdose, and one of the crackheads who was living with Kinky believes that Kinky was murdered. The narrator is intrigued to learn that Kinky had turned up at the flat shortly before his death with Charlie and two grand in cash. The crackheads tell them that Charlie has gone to Brighton and the narrator sends Cody after her.

The narrator and Morty retire to a café, where they run into Freddy Hurst, a fat and slovenly ex-gangster who is down on his luck. Freddy subtly ridicules Morty and asks for some money. Morty complies, but when Freddy makes another comment, Morty flies into a rage and beats Freddy almost to death in the middle of the crowded café. Morty and the narrator flee, with the narrator deeply troubled by what he has just witnessed. That night, the narrator visits Gene at his flat. Gene goes over the beating in great detail and informs the narrator that if Freddy dies, the narrator is left with two options. He can either testify against Morty or he will go to prison as an accomplice to murder. Gene then goes on to explain that Freddy Hurst was an influential gangster in the late 1970s in London, and that Gene and Morty were members of his crew. After Kilburn Jerry killed himself and Morty was caught disposing of the body, Freddy was about to go away for about 12 years to serve concurrent sentences. Freddy could have gotten Morty off the hook but chose not to, leading to Morty doing 5 years in prison unnecessarily.

The narrator gets very drunk with Gene, and the next day decides to arrange a meeting with Tammy at the Churchill Hotel. While showering at the hotel before Tammy arrives, the narrator is kidnapped by two unidentified men and transported across London to The City. There he meets Eddie Temple, who explains that Jimmy has double-crossed the narrator. Jimmy had become involved in a scheme with some gangsters from Chechnya to purchase a consignment of non-existent Pakistani heroin. Jimmy had been taken in by the gangsters and had lost nearly 13 million pounds. In his rage, Jimmy believed that his old friend Eddie had arranged for Jimmy to be ensnared, and he therefore tasked the narrator to find Charlie, Eddie's daughter. Jimmy believed that if he could hold Charlie hostage, he could force Eddie to get his money back. Eddie goes on to explain that Jimmy has been moonlighting as a police informer for a number of years. Eddie plays the narrator a recording in which Jimmy speaks with Albie Carter, a member of the Southeast Regional Crime Squad. Jimmy tells Albie that he wants the narrator to be arrested for possession of drugs, which would result in a 12-year sentence. Jimmy had sent the narrator to a dodgy accountant, and after the narrator is imprisoned, Jimmy was planning to take control of his assets to recover his lost wealth. Eddie drops the narrator off back at the Churchill with the recording.

The narrator decides to take matters into his own hands and proceeds to Jimmy's mansion in Totteridge. There, he sneaks into the grounds of Price's house and kills him with a gun he borrowed from Gene. The narrator heads back into London, where his colleagues are frantically trying to find out who killed Jimmy. The narrator is convinced that he got away cleanly and is unconcerned. He is summoned with Morty to see Gene, who promptly beats the narrator viciously and breaks his wrist. It transpires that Gene has discovered that the narrator killed Jimmy with the same gun that Gene used to kill Crazy Larry Flynn, a homosexual London gangster who had been friends with both Gene and Morty. Upon producing the recording, the narrator manages to convince Gene and Morty that Jimmy was an informer, and they trust one another again.

The narrator now decides to eliminate both of his remaining problems. One, he has to stop Klaus the murderous Nazi and, two, he has to find a way to steal the pills back from the Yahoos. The narrator and Morty contact Shanks in Liverpool and get him to send an assassin down on the train. The narrator lures Klaus to Primrose Park and lies in wait with the sniper. The narrator spots a tall blonde man in the park and, believing this man to be Klaus, orders the sniper to kill him, which he does. The narrator then realises that they have killed the wrong man and see Klaus run away from the scene. Gene flies into a rage when he hears what has happened, and dispatches some of his own men to find and kill Klaus, which they do.

The narrator then contracts Cody to organise a false police raid on the Yahoos' hideout to steal back the pills. Cody and his team assault the hideout, posing as armed police. They allow the Yahoos to escape and they "confiscate" the pills. Gene and the narrator find the Yahoos in a run-down bar and convince them that the police who raided them were crooked and have taken the pills for themselves. The narrator had previously worked out a deal with Eddie Ryder to give Ryder the pills in return for 2.5 million pounds. Thinking that his job is finally complete, the narrator and his colleagues take the pills to Eddie Temple's bonded warehouse at Heathrow Airport, where Temple is having the pills flown to Tokyo.

When they arrive at the airport, Eddie and his private security team take them all hostage and take the pills. Temple takes the pills, telling the narrator that he is owed them as a result of the narrator causing Charlie distress. Temple then delivers a speech to the narrator, explaining the nature of the drugs game, crime and life in general:

"You're born, you take shit. Get out in the world, you take more shit. Climb a little higher, you take less shit. Until one day you're up in the rarified atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son."

Seemingly defeated, the narrator and his colleagues then discover that they have delivered the wrong boxes to Temple. The boxes were actually filled with sex toys and pornography that Morty had been unable to sell at Loveland, the sex shop that he owned. The real pills had been shipped back to Amsterdam and to an unknown fate. Clarkie then tells Morty that had Freddie Hurst has died of his injuries, which could cause serious problems for Morty.

The story then fast-forwards about three years. The narrator is now living on the northern coast of Venezuela where he runs a bar. It turns out that about six weeks after Temple took the pills, the narrator and Tammy were eating in a restaurant in London when Sydney, Tammy's jilted ex-boyfriend, found them. Sydney shot the narrator multiple times, including in the head. The narrator spent six weeks in a coma and awoke with a steel plate in his head. He is visited in hospital by a mysterious government official, who may work for the police or MI5. The man tells the narrator to abandon the drugs trade and leave Britain or else he would find himself in prison for a very long time. The narrator moves to Venezuela and leaves us with the line, "My name? If you knew that, you'd be as clever as me."

War Zone (film)

Hadleigh-West turns her camera on men throughout the United States, asking them why they whistle at or make comments at women who pass them on the street. In response, some men feel compelled to apologize, hit her, yell at her, or engage her in conversation. "Through these conversations, Hadleigh-West reveals the anger, fear and frustration as well as the affection, admiration and humor that characterizes relationships between men and women."

Zoey & Me

# ''There's an Orangutan in My Bathtub''

# : Zoey came to live with the Mileses shortly after she was born. Zoey's mother, a captive-bred orangutan named Lucky, didn't know how to care for her new baby, having never seen it done in the wild. As a result, little Zoey had to be placed in the care of Mrs. Miles, a primatologist at the zoo, and the only character with the time and patience to be Zoey's foster parent. Molly tries her hardest to get used to the new family member, even making Zoey her current-events project for school, but after having her homework destroyed and her mother's time taken up by the baby orangutan she gives up and begins desperately wanting things to be normal again. After Zoey ingests a bottle of shampoo and has to be rushed to the hospital, Molly learns what it truly means to be a big sister and to care about Zoey, no matter how much trouble she causes.

The Barbie Diaries

In "The Barbie Diaries," Barbie is portrayed as a typical American teenager who is a sophomore in high school who encounters the problems that real-life teens often encounter: making new friends, dating, gossip, and getting involved in school. She always gets beaten in everything by Raquelle, a snobby girl who used to be her best friend in fifth grade. On the first day of school, she attempts to become anchorwoman for the school TV station but Raquelle beats her to it. Instead, she becomes Raquelle's personal assistant, buying her drinks and doing her work.

When Raquelle dumps Todd, he and Barbie begin hanging out together and soon become a couple. Todd asks Barbie to the Fall Formal. Thrilled, Barbie, as well as her best friends Tia and Courtney, rush to buy a dress when they discover that Raquelle and Todd are together again. The mysterious woman at the counter, whose name is Stephanie, gives them advice and offers them some charm bracelets for free. Barbie's happens to come with a diary which she writes her hopes in.

Soon after, what she wrote starts to mysteriously come true. Someone leaves her love notes and her band, Charmz, gets a gig at the school dance that Barbie was previously invited to. Next, Barbie decides to do a piece on popular kids and "What Makes Them Popular." She soon starts to neglect her friends and the story is quite mean. She even skips Tia's class-president election to hang out with Reagan and Dawn, Raquelle's friends. She starts skipping band practice and spends hours talking to them on the phone and hanging out with them. Barbie realizes that her hopes written in the diary came true and rushes to the mall to ask Stephanie about it. To her shock, it is revealed that the woman never worked there and apparently does not exist.

Tia and Courtney discover that it is Kevin that has been leaving Barbie the love notes, not Todd. They pressure him to tell her but he refuses. Dawn and Reagan find out that Barbie only befriended them because of her story and stop hanging out with her. They tell Raquelle. Soon, Raquelle steals Barbie's magic bracelet. Tia and Courtney watch footage of the story, and they discover that Barbie has told them a secret about Tia. They confront her and let her know that they no longer want to be friends with her. The night of the story, Barbie apologizes to her friends and chooses to instead showcase Kevin's film clips depicting a paperclip chain attacking his eBook. Out of shame, Barbie refuses to go to the dance. On the night of the dance, her friends arrive and tell her that she has to perform with them, giving her the dress that they put on hold for her at the mall.

Still worried as she has no bracelet, Kevin takes one of his guitar strings and loops it around her wrist. Barbie points out that it is a "stupid piece of bent metal" until she realizes that is what her bracelet was. The girls rock the concert with Courtney finally able to do a drum stick maneuver that she couldn't do before. While dancing with Todd she asks him about the notes in her locker but he denies knowing about any notes. Confused, Barbie thinks back to other people who were in the places the notes had said. Realizing that it was Kevin all along, Barbie leaves in the middle of the dance and goes over to Kevin. Kevin gives her back the charm bracelet that he found on the ground. She apologizes for never realizing, but points out that the bizarre rhyming in the notes was a giveaway. The two dance together and become a couple. At the end, Barbie and Kevin watch a movie while eating ziti as Kevin asked.

Zorro's Black Whip

In ''Zorro's Black Whip'' the word Zorro never occurs, but a female who behaves like Don Diego in Idaho fights a cabal of corrupt politicians as "The Black Whip" after her brother (the original Black Whip) is killed.

Hammond, owner of the town's stagecoach line and a leading citizen on the council, is secretly opposed to Idaho becoming a state—because government protection would destroy the system and organization he has constructed—and conducts raids against citizens and settlers alike to prevent order, while keeping his own identity as the organization's leader secret. The town marshal is meanwhile powerless to act outside his jurisdiction beyond the town boundary. Randolph Meredith, owner of the town's newspaper, as the Black Whip, opposes this scheme to defeat statehood, but one day he is killed after preventing yet another coup. Meredith's sister Barbara, expert with a bullwhip and pistol, dons Randolph's black costume and mask and becomes "The Black Whip" in her brother's place, dealing a blow to Hammond and his gang each time they perform some heinous act in their efforts to keep the town, and their power over it, unchanged.

Aided by recently arrived undercover US government agent Vic Gordon, Barbara (Linda Stirling) as ''The Black Whip'' is quite obviously female but, even after a bout of wrestling, the villains do not realise they aren't fighting a man. Some reference is made to this in the script, however, when the villains are trying to determine who the Black Whip's secret identity could be:

'''Hammond:''' Barbara Meredith, she's the Black Whip! '''Baxter:''' She couldn't be! The Black Whip's got to be a man! He's outshot us, outrode us, and outfought us, stopped us at every turn!|Chapter Nine: Avalanche

Hammond orders her taken, but the day is saved when Vic Gordon discovers Barbara's secret and removes her from suspicion by appearing in her costume and overcoming her captors. From this point on, despite relinquishing the costume at her insistence that she must continue as the Black Whip, he tends to assume the hero role while Barbara becomes slightly more of a traditional damsel in distress, even while she still holds her own in successive violent confrontations with Hammond's henchmen, and more than once saves Vic's life.

After the town has finally voted on whether or not to accept statehood, most of Hammond's gang are gunned down while attempting to steal the ballot boxes. Hammond escapes, and secretly trails and confronts Barbara in her cave when she removes her mask. He takes aim, but is struck down by the Black Whip's stallion. The reign of terror has ended. Vic remains with Barbara and the marshall to help maintain peace in the territory.

Forgive us our Sins

''Imagine staging the end of the world and observing the effects of this apocalypse on an isolated, rural village… imagine a group of powerful Vatican clerics coldly orchestrating such an experiment in search of scientific and theological "truth"…''

1284 Heurteloup is a village tucked away in the marshlands of South West France. It has been cut off from the rest of the world for forty years and - so it seems - ignored by everyone including the local diocese and the state. Neighbouring townsfolk do not dare venture anywhere near Heurteloup - it is a place that inspires terror, a name that conjures up evil spirits, darkness and savagery. Not so long ago, the remains of corpses were found floating in a river, dragged by the current straight from the banks of the cursed town.

One man decides to set off to try to save the "soul" of Heurteloup: his name is Father Henno Gui. A newly ordained priest, Gui is driven purely by faith and his sense of vocation. He is accompanied by two loyal companions: a young boy, Floris, and a giant-like man, Mardi Gras, whose disproportionate size and disfigured face terrify onlookers.

Having walked for days, fighting their way through thick forests, Gui and his companions arrive at Heurteloup. The village is deserted and there is not a soul in sight. The Church is in ruins and the dwellings appear uninhabited. But when Gui looks carefully, he notices traces of recent human activity, and he can sense that their every move is being watched. He has no idea where the villagers are hiding. Most importantly, he can tell from effigies and statuettes of women that these hidden villagers worship ‘Gods’ of a very unorthodox kind…

So begins this violent story of power and corruption, where magic and superstition coexist alongside Catholicism and the stranglehold of the Vatican. Romain Sardou recreates the period as he weaves philosophical and religious questions through a chilling tale of murder and betrayal.

### Historical Characters in the Novel

- Pope Martin IV

Man-Thing (film)

At Dark Waters, a Native American sacred land containing an enigmatic swamp spirit, a teenager is murdered by a plant-like monster. The following day, young replacement sheriff Kyle Williams reaches Bywater and meets with deputy sheriff Fraser, who tells him the previous sheriff is among 47 missing persons since oil tycoon Fred Schist bought the ancient tribal lands from shaman and Seminole chieftain Ted Sallis, the first to disappear. Schist claimed that Sallis had sold the lands legally and then escaped with the money. Schist then asked the sheriff for help: local protesters opposed his perfectly legal activities, and mestizo scoundrel Rene Laroque was sabotaging his facilities. Williams investigates this while trying to find an explanation for the missing people, some of which were found brutally murdered with plants growing from inside their bodies. Photographer Mike Ploog and shaman Pete Horn tell Williams local legends about the guardian spirit, suggesting that it could be real.

As sabotage and murder continue, Williams investigates the swamp with Fraser and finds the previous sheriff's corpse. Medical examiner Val Mayerik admits that the previous sheriff had ordered him to file the deaths as alligator attacks, even if Mayerik believed otherwise.

Williams and Fraser try to track Laroque, who lives in the swamp, by using a canoe. At the same time, Schist sends the Thibadeux brothers, local thugs, to track and murder Laroque. The monster in the swamp finds the Thibadeux and kills them. Williams is ensnared by Laroque, who admits having helped Schist buy the lands. Laroque claims that Sallis was opposed to the sale; Laroque insists that the guardian spirit would keep on murdering until Schist stops desecrating the sacred swamp. Fraser tries to help Laroque, but the Man-Thing timely appears and murders Fraser; Laroque knocks Williams down and escapes. Williams wakes up and finds Ploog, who has blurry pictures of the monster; the sheriff seizes the photographs and forbids Ploog to come back to the swamp.

The following day, Williams interviews Horn and Schist, with the help of schoolteacher Teri Richards' help. Williams starts having romantic feelings for Richards. Horn goes to the swamp and tries to stop the Man-Thing with prayers and sacrificing his own life. The monster kills Horn, but is not otherwise affected by his efforts. That night, Mayerik autopsies the old sheriff and finds a bullet. He tries to tell Williams, but he is back at the swamp, unreachable. Mayerik tells Richards, and she goes to the swamp to tell Williams. Meanwhile, Ploog had returned to the swamp, trying to get a picture of the monster. Instead he startles Schist, who was in the swamp to murder Laroque. Schist shoots and kills Ploog. Soon afterward, Laroque ambushes and defeats Schist's son and minion Jake.

Williams finds Ploog's corpse and reasons that Schist murdered Ploog. He then meets Richards, who tells him about Mayerik's autopsy. Williams concludes that Schist is guilty of several murders, trying to incriminate Laroque simply to avoid punishment. According to Schist's confession to Laroque, he murdered Sallis and buried him in Dark Waters. Due to the magic embedded in the soil, Sallis returned as the Man-Thing. Richards reveals that she can guide Williams to Laroque's lair, but the Man-Thing starts chasing them. He chases them to the drilling tower at Dark Waters. In the tower, Schist is leveling his weapon at Laroque in an attempt to prevent Laroque from blowing it away with dynamite. Laroque nonetheless tries to detonate his bomb and is shot and wounded by Schist; Schist then wounds Williams.

However, the Man-Thing arrives and brutally murders Schist by filling his body with oil. The Man-Thing then moves toward Williams and Richards. Laroque sacrifices himself shouting at the monster and blowing the bomb. The monster survives the flames, but then is absorbed back to the land, allowing Williams and Richards to leave unharmed.

The Puppet Masters (film)

When a flying saucer reportedly lands in rural Iowa, Andrew Nivens (who runs a secret branch of the Central Intelligence Agency tasked with investigating extraterrestrial activity) sends two agents from their local office to investigate the crash site. After the two agents disappear shortly after their arrival, Andrew now goes in person, accompanied by agents Sam Nivens (his son) and Jarvis, as well as Dr. Mary Sefton, a NASA specialist. After meeting with a local television station manager, they encounter people who appear to display no emotions. To test this theory, Mary partially opens her blouse however the television station manager ignores her attempts to seduce him. Suspecting that the man is not who he appears to be, Sam attempts to take him into custody however a brutal fight takes place in the man's office, killing the manager. The team then locates an alien, that looks like a slug, attached to the man's back. The team manages to capture the alien and after a chase where multiple infected town citizens attempt to stop them, they successfully return to their plan.

The slugs soon spread steadily from the infected town and during a staff meeting where the team discusses the situation, Sam notices that Jarvis has stopped chain-smoking. Suspecting that he may have been infected, Sam and the team attempt to restrain Jarvis and after a brief chase, they locate the unconscious Jarvis who no longer has an alien on his back. Andrew and the team conduct a search of their office building and after being unable to locate the alien, Andrew orders all of his staff (at gunpoint) including Sam to remove their shirts. At this time, Andrew's personal secretary refuses to remove her shirt and attempts to flee the building. Agents, including Sam, pursue her, and after a brutal one-on-one fight, Andrew and Alex Holland (Sam's best friend and leader of the agency SWAT team) locate Sam and the now-dead secretary in the office's kitchen. Sam tells his father that the alien had gotten away but unbeknownst to them, the alien had infected Sam. Shortly after Sam is infected, Jarvis kills himself after being unable to cope with being infected and the ultimate removal of the alien.

The now infected Sam goes to Jarvis's apartment and with the help of the unsuspecting apartment manager, Greenberg, opens crates of parasites that Jarvis had shipped to himself. Sam infects Greenberg (who removes his glasses) and then it's learned that the parasites communicate with each other by touching each other with tentacles. Along with communicating telepathically, the aliens have the ability to correct any ailment affecting the host (Jarvis's chain-smoking and Greenberg needing glasses.) Sam and Greenberg then go to a convention center where the president of the United States is going to conduct a meeting. They then infect the Agent in Charge of the President's Secret Service Detail. The President arrives however he is saved from his now infected security detail by a tactical team of uninfected agents working for Andrew and Holland. After a brief chase, Sam is captured by his father however Greenberg leaves with all of the knowledge passed to him by all of the people (including Sam and the infected Secret Service agents) who had been infected. Back in the office, Andrew, Mary, Holland, and Dr. Graves (the lead medical researcher for the team) interrogate the infected Sam. At that time they learn that the aliens have complete control over their hosts, including killing them and bringing them back to life. Andrew threatens the alien by subjecting Sam to electric shocks where they then learn that electric shocks briefly break the alien's control, at the expense of injuring the host. The alien tells Andrew that it will kill Sam to prove its power and when it stops his heart, Mary conducts massive electrical shocks to Sam, causing the alien to leave his body, after believing that Sam is no longer a viable host. The team is able to resuscitate Sam however he begins to suffer the same withdrawal that affected Jarvis. After suffering significant withdrawal, Mary comforts Sam and they begin a personal relationship.

Andrew recommends to the President that the US military be sent in to clear out the aliens however the aliens by now have infected the entire area, members of local law enforcement and members of the Iowa National Guard. The aliens are able to reproduce asexually by division and soon the army sent to eradicate the aliens are infected. At the same time, Sam and Mary are back at Sam's apartment discussing the events of the day and after Sam changes clothes after the events of the day, Mary attempts to seduce him. Sam then discovers that Mary had been infected by an alien, that had infected Sam's cat, to gain entry into his apartment. After informing Sam that the aliens now know everything that they know, and any attempts to harm the alien would harm Mary, the now infected Mary makes a seemingly impossible jump from Sam's third-floor apartment and flees in a car driven by Greenberg.

Back at the office, Sam, Alex, and Andrew watch as two chimpanzees that had been infected for research purposes infect another chimpanzee against its will. The third chimpanzee then types a message to Sam on a computer asking him if he remembers it, thus confirming that all of the aliens share the collective knowledge of the entire group. Sam and Alex theorize as to how the aliens are able to expand so quickly and realize that they are using a large river to move the hive. Sam and Alex then parachute into Des Moines, Iowa, which has now been fully infected. Once there Sam enters the hive using a transmitter that Graves created, that mimics the communication frequency used by the aliens. Once inside, Sam realizes that he still receives telepathic messages from the alien that had infected him which nearly causes him to allow himself to be infected again however he breaks free from the message and opens fire on infected citizens, who have discovered that he is not infected. Sam manages to find Mary and after nearly killing her to remove the alien from her back, she informs him that they need to retrieve a child that had been kept in isolation from the infected townspeople. During this time, Alex entered the hive to help his partner escape. As Sam and Mary are retrieving the child, Alex comes under heavy fire from infected soldiers and townspeople, falling into the pool where the aliens reproduce. After Sam and Mary retrieve the child and are retreating to the extraction point, the now infected Alex confronts them, after tracking his partner through location beacons that both were wearing. After a brutal fight, Alex (through sheer will) manages to briefly break the mental hold the alien has over him and tells Sam to leave him. Sam refuses to leave his friend and begs for him to fight the alien's control however the alien takes control of him once again and attempts to infect Sam again. At that point, Mary shoots and kills Alex when it appears he is defeating Sam. Sam, Mary, and the child make it to the extraction point where they are picked up and flown back to base.

Back at base, the team learns that the child suffered from encephalitis in the past, and that apparently was the reason a slug couldn't possess him.The team tests the theory by infecting an alien with the encephalitis virus, which causes the alien to explode and die. Biological warfare is adopted and seemingly all parasites die, freeing their victims. During a later inspection of a hive, debris falls on Andrew, which allows a previously undiscovered last alien to infect him. Sam realizes that his father was infected when Andrew was able to walk normally when he had previously needed to use a cane due to a significant leg injury. Sam pursues his infected father, who had now commandeered a helicopter. After a brutal fight on a helicopter, Sam shoots his father, causing the alien to leave the now useless Andrew. The alien then attempts to leave the helicopter however it gets chopped up in the helicopter's tail rotor, thus getting killed. Now back on the ground, Andrew confirms that that was the last alien and that he is aware of how much Sam loves him and how Sam and Mary feel about each other. As Andrew is being treated for his injuries, Sam remarks to Mary that now she knows everything about him but he now has to learn about her. Mary tells him that he has a lifetime to get to know her.

G.I. Samurai

During a defensive exercise, a wildly mixed group of Japanese SDF forces with a tank, an APC, a patrol boat and a helicopter suddenly find themselves stranded 400 years in the past and under attack by samurai forces. Their acting commanding officer, Second Lieutenant Yoshiaki Iba, befriends and joins forces with Nagao Kagetora, the war leader of lord Koizumi. Seeing the SDF weaponry in action, Kagetora persuades Iba to aid him in his struggle for supremacy in feudal Japan.

In the meantime, however, Iba finds himself faced with the desperation of his men who want to return to their own time. Some make contact with the locals - one, Private First Class Mimura, even finds himself a consort who keeps following him - whilst others freak out, running away in a desperate attempt to return home, or rebelling against rules and restrictions and try to live as pirates. Finally, his force shrunk from 21 men to 11, Iba manages to calm his troops by telling them that by fighting history and thus creating a time paradox they might be able to return home. Iba joins Kagetora and fights by his side.

Finally, Iba and the members face Takeda Shingen's forces in battle. But their trust in their advanced weaponry costs them dearly: Shingen's forces outmanoeuvre them at every turn, the soldiers lose all their vehicles and major weapons, and five of them die on the battlefield. In a desperate attempt, Iba forces his way to Shingen's command post and kills him in a sword duel.

As Iba and his remaining men go to join Kagetora in Kyoto, the latter is put under pressure by his family and the Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to get rid of Iba. Reluctantly conceding, Kagetora intercepts Iba's group at an old temple. But as Iba prepares to kill Kagetora for his betrayal, Kagetora shoots him. The other soldiers are killed by Kagetora's archers, and Mimura's consort delivers the fatal blow to her lover.

Kagetora remorsefully buries Iba and his men with honors. In the end, only one of the members, Private Mokichi Nemoto, survives, who had left the group to help a boy and his family, whose father had been killed.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

In a small Hutsul village in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, a young man, Ivan, falls in love with the daughter of the man who killed his father. Though their families share a bitter enmity, Ivan and Marichka have known each other since childhood. In preparation for their marriage, Ivan leaves the village to work and earn money for a household. While he is gone, Marichka accidentally slips into a river and drowns while trying to rescue a lost lamb.

Ivan returns and falls into despair after seeing Marichka's body. He continues to work, enduring a period of joyless toil, until he meets another woman, Palahna, while shoeing a horse. Ivan and Palahna get married in a traditional Hutsul wedding in which they are blindfolded and yoked together. The marriage quickly turns sour, however, as Ivan remains obsessed with the memory of Marichka. Estranged from her emotionally distant husband, Palahna becomes involved with a local molfar Yurko, while Ivan begins to experience hallucinations.

At a tavern, Ivan witnesses the molfar embrace Palahna and strike one of his friends. Roused into an uncharacteristic fury, Ivan snatches up his axe, only to be struck down by the molfar. Ivan stumbles into the nearby woods and perceives Marichka's spirit to be with him, reflected in the water and gliding amongst the trees. As reality merges into dream, the colourless shade of Marichka reaches out across a great space and touches Ivan's outstretched hand. Ivan screams and dies. The community gives him a traditional Hutsul burial while children watch through cross braced windows.

Mission Critical (video game)

For decades the United Nations (UN) are fuelled by fear against uncontrolled technological development believing it will kill off the human race, have restricted technological growth and research across Earth to extreme levels. A military and political coalition ("the Alliance") was eventually formed among the many influential nations and other interests who came to the decision to refuse to submit to the law and to secede from the United Nations. In response the UN waged a war, taking over the Earth, while the Alliance take their advanced technology (including FTL interstellar travel and unmanned combat drones) into space.

Recently, the Alliance discovers alien ruins on a planet of Deneb Kaitos, a planet which has been named Persephone. The Alliance Interstellar Space Operations Command (AISOC) dispatches the United States Navy's ''SV Jericho'' to investigate the ruins, make first contact if aliens are present, and locate any alien technology which might be used to turn the tide of the war. Because the ''Jericho'' is unarmed, the light cruiser ''USS Lexington'' is assigned as an escort. As the two ships approach Persephone, they are ambushed by the UN Geneva-class vessel ''UNS Dharma,'' said to be one of a brand-new class of vessels. The ''Dharma'' destroys all the drones in flight from the ''Lexington''. Captain Stephen R. Dayna (played by Michael Dorn) pretends to surrender, and surreptitiously knocks out an officer (the player character) and leaves him behind, on the pretext that he has been killed in the attack. Dayna leaves with the rest of the crew, making it appear that they will evacuate to the ''Dharma'' using the inter-ship shuttle carried aboard the ''Lexington''. Executive officer Jennifer Tran leaves behind a message for the player character and places an armed nuclear warhead taken from one of the ship's missiles into a compartment aboard the shuttle, and programs it so that a proximity detonation will occur just as the transport shuttle docks, destroying the UN ship and killing the crews of ''Jericho'' and ''Lexington'', in order to buy time so that the player character might be able to complete the mission before the arrival of more UN ships.

The player character awakens on deck 2 of the Lexington's habitat module. A hastily penned letter from Dayna explains his situation. Battle damage has produced a serious hull breach in a stateroom and a meltdown about to occur in the ship's fission reactor. Once those crises have been solved, the player character restores full functionality to the ship's computer, where he finds the pre-recorded message left by ''Lexington'' XO Jennifer Tran. This last message explains the need to get into contact with higher headquarters. This requires running diagnostics, scavenging parts, then conducting an EVA to repair the ship's communications dish. By manually choosing a path of transmission to avoid the compromised portions of the Alliance network, contact is established with an Alliance military command center, located in a domed colony on a planet named Erebus, orbiting 70 Ophiuchi.

Once the player contacts Erebus, Alliance Fleet Admiral Charles Decker (played by Henry Strozier), reluctantly reveals the reason for the Lexington's mission to Persephone, telling of the unknown structure there. However, now that secrecy has been lost, both sides are dispatching reinforcements to Persephone. Decker knows that the UN task force will reach the planet first and Alliance reinforcement is months away, and orders the player character to abandon the mission rather than be killed. Choosing to obey this order will finish the game prematurely.

Decker also reveals that there's an experimental weapon aboard Lexington called Hype. Hype is a mix of nanomachines and neurochemicals that rewires the brain for an interface with the ship's computers, allowing a human to control the automated fighter drones. Without Hype, battle progresses too fast for a human to control remotely. Hype has a side effect: it inevitably kills the person who uses it.

After the player character defends the Lexington from three UN attacks, he descends to Persephone and investigates the alien ruins. He discovers an alien intelligence, which created a portal that transported him through space and time into the future: to 2295.

The game presents two different sets of future events: the 'normal' one that follows from UN victory; the player will visit this future where he learns that the Alliance ships were ambushed, the mission was never completed, and more UN ships arrived at Persephone and destroyed the ruins with nuclear bombs. With the Alliance already on the losing side, the loss of alien technology ensures the UN's victory. The war ended and the restriction on AI is finally imposed on all worlds.

However, decades after the war, a group of underground scientists on a colony called Prometheus secretly created ELFs (electronic life-forms) on a remote outpost. When the UN finds out, they send a fleet to destroy the outpost and make sure no scientist or ELF survives. Although the outpost is obliterated, several ELFs survive. The surviving ELFs evolve and build their own war machines with which to strike back. The humans had no chance - the ELFs evolved too fast. A survival plan was put into motion: two thousand humans would be sent in a ship with only sublight engine to a star system not connected to the Tal-Seto network; the UN military command would then activate a "Tal-Seto collapser", causing the network to fold in on itself. The fold will affect everything within its radius; only the human ship will escape, and all FTL jumpnode will be severed. The ELFs will be trapped in their home system and remain there forever. They knew about the collapsing node, but can't create a solution to it if they can't connect to the "community", and the collapse would eventually consume the entire galaxy and their entire existence will be doomed. The collapse is creating a singularity, so even if they sent their own colony ship they wouldn't be able to escape. Their only hope lies in preventing these events from happening in the first place. They intuit that the ancient ruins on Persephone could be the answer.

The player agrees to help the ELFs. The ELFs state that they can send back only the player's memory, into the hours before Lexington entered Persephone's orbit. The player's memories and knowledge are transferred back to his mind prior to the introductory events; the alternate (and canonical) storyline is then triggered.

The player must prevent ''UNS Dharma'' from defeating the ''Lexington'' and the ''Jericho''. Having retained all memories from the 'original' timeline, the player alerts Commander Dana about ''UNS Dharma'' and injects himself with Hype. Once the ''Dharma'' is destroyed, the alien technology found on Persephone turns the tide of the war, allowing the Alliance to defeat the UN and repeal the technology limitation law. The ELFs are created and are welcomed by humans as equals. In the new 2295, Earth no longer exists. Humans now live on a Dyson Sphere which has been constructed by the two races with the humans living on the inside, and the ELFs on the outside. The game ends with player character contemplating about the meaning of human existence, and the ELFs grow to explore facets of the multiverse that are outside the realm of human understanding.

Bag Limit

Sheriff Bill Gastner hopes his last few days in office will be uneventful, but this is before a local 17-year-old named Matt Baca drives drunkenly into his cruiser. Baca stumbles drunkenly into the night as Gastner confronts him. He is later arrested passed out at his home. After kicking open sheriff Gastner's temporary cruisers window, he is transferred to a local Border Patrol unit. The transfer turns fatal when Baca pushes himself away, accidentally into a delivery trucks path. The plot thickens as the dead teens father is found dead in his kitchen the next morning. Thus bringing Gastner into a confusing set of clues to lead him to why Baca kept fighting his arrest, where is and where did he get his fake I.D., and who was involved in the struggle with Matt Baca's father leading to his death.

Category:2001 novels Category:American crime novels Category:St. Martin's Press books

Alma Cogan (novel)

In Burn's novel, however, Alma Cogan does not die in 1966, but retires from show business sometime thereafter to a quiet solitude near the English seashore, living neither in luxury nor poverty. In contrast to Cogan's bubbly public persona, Burn's Alma, who narrates the book from 1986, is an arch, dry-witted, highly intelligent observer of the world around her, mildly dismissive of, even jaded by, her showbiz past (but not entirely disdainful of it). She recounts with equal detachment the heady days of celebrity and the sordid backstage cruelties—including bouts of unexpected violence—as she muses on the nature of stardom and its many pitfalls, which entrap the worshipper as much as the worshipped. But her residual fame proves a gruesome and unwanted relic as it serves to tie her, through her fans, to an unforeseen encounter with evil.

Blueberry (film)

U.S. Marshal Mike Donovan (Vincent Cassel) (referred to as Broken Nose by the aboriginal tribe; unlike the comic his nickname is not Blueberry) has dark memories of the death of his first love. He keeps peace between the whites and the aborigines who had temporarily adopted and taken care of him. The evil actions of Blount, a "white sorcerer" lead him to confront the villain in the Sacred Mountains, and, through shamanic rites involving an entheogenic brew, conquer his fears and uncover a suppressed memory he would much rather deny.

Metrosexual (film)

Four friends each receive phone calls to meet a fifth friend for lunch at MK Restaurant, a popular hot pot chain in Bangkok. The friends are: * Pom, a reporter for a women's magazine. * Nim, a sexual dysfunction telephone-hotline counselor. * Fai, the stingy owner of a beauty salon. * Pat, the fiancée of a retired Japanese man.

They are called to the restaurant by Pang, who announces that she is planning to marry Kong, her boyfriend of three months. The four friends are surprised by the news and think maybe it is too sudden.

Then Kong joins the five women for their meal. His well-groomed appearance is met with approval, but when Kong starts offering tips on how to cook the meal, and presents a pair of earrings that he picked out to Pom for her birthday (the real reason the five girlfriends are getting together), eyebrows are raised.

The four women later meet at Fyne's beauty salon and voice their suspicions that Kong might be gay, and not just a metrosexual male. Pom reveals that she spotted Kong earlier at a male model beauty pageant she was covering, and she saw him embracing another man backstage. To confirm their belief, they need advice. So Pat arranges a meeting with her brother, Bee, who's a flight attendant for Thai Airways International. Bee puts together a checklist, which includes various physical attributes as well as biological and sociological backgrounds that could indicate whether a man is gay.

A series of comic scenarios then occur as the four women investigate Kong and watch for any telltale signs.

China Gate (1957 film)

Sergeant Brock and Goldie are American Korean War veterans now serving as French Foreign Legion mercenaries in the First Indochina War. Brock's wife is a "half caste" Chinese-European named "Lucky Legs" (Angie Dickinson) who resorts to smuggling to feed her five-year-old son she had with Brock. Brock abandoned her and the baby when he was born with Asian features, feeling a "half breed" would not be welcome in America; an attitude towards miscegenation prevalent at the time. Lucky is recruited by the French high command to use her expertise of the area and her connection to the communist Major Cham to get a demolition squad of Legionnaires led by Brock to a vital hidden Viet Minh ammunition dump on the border with Red China. In return for her services, Lucky is promised by the French that they will arrange for her five-year-old son's emigration to America.

The raid is filled with animosity between the former lovers, booby traps, and enemy patrols. On arrival at the ammunition dump hidden in a mountain, Lucky discovers the commanding officer is her former friend Major Cham, who wants to take her and her son to a new life in Moscow. Cham is a high flyer corporate executive (in the manner of Fuller's gangsters in ''Underworld USA'') marked for great things in the world of international communism. The sabotage mission is successful but at great cost; Lucky dies blowing up the dump. Brock reconciles with his child and is last seen walking along holding his hand in preparation for returning to America, as Goldie reprises the title song.

Arcibel's Game

1967: in Miranda, an imaginary Latin American country, ruled by the dictator General Abalorio, Arcibel Alegría (Darío Grandinetti), a journalist who writes articles about chess is taken to jail as political prisoner due to a mixed-up schedule of the newspaper he works for. Arcibel, a non-political, rather solitary person, separated, and father of a two-year-old girl, will get to know a new reality he's never heard of, from inside the jail.

Arcibel spends his time learning and, luckily for him, playing chess with Palacios, his cell neighbor. As time goes by, General Abalorio is elected president after democratic elections and all political prisoners are set free, except for Arcibel, who, due to a bureaucratic mess, will be confined to jail where the rest of the criminals are locked up.

The jail gets crowded with thieves and murderers. Pablo (Diego Torres), his new cellmate, hardly knows how to read or write and he definitely doesn't play chess. Despite Arcibel's efforts, Pablo doesn't learn a thing and therefore, Arcibel comes up with an idea. He invents a witty war game, of guerillas. In time Pablo becomes an expert. When he meets Rosalinda, Arcibel's daughter who is already in her twenties, he's touched. The day Pablo manages to beat Arcibel in the game, he runs away. Arcibel then has to undergo terrible punishments for keeping quiet about his cellmate's jailbreak. However, he holds out until time gives him another surprise. His game, Arcibel's game, is not a game anymore, it has become real, and the two leading players turn out to be no others than Pablo and his own daughter Rosalinda.

The Hunt (The Wire)

Rawls and Landsman go to the scene where Greggs and Orlando were shot. Bunk finds her weapon and some footprints and clothes belonging to the gunmen. Rawls finds McNulty in a state of shock. Freamon marshals the detail to get back to working the wiretap so any discussion of the shooting can be used as evidence. Carver informs Greggs' family and her girlfriend, Cheryl, about the shooting. At the hospital, Rawls uncharacteristically tells McNulty that Greggs' shooting is in no way McNulty's responsibility. Cheryl and Carver arrive and Burrell misunderstands Cheryl's relationship with Greggs. Burrell asks Commissioner Warren Frazier if he wants to talk to Cheryl, but Frazier declines and leaves Burrell to go alone, disappointing Carver. Cheryl returns home and breaks down in tears.

The next day, Stringer orders Wee-Bey to murder Little Man for supposedly killing Greggs. In the pit, D'Angelo discusses the shooting with Poot and Bodie. They mistakenly believe that the shooting was unrelated to their organization. Observing from a nearby church roof, Santangelo and Herc watch Bodie receiving a resupply of drugs from the towers. Herc notes the window which the stash is being dropped from. Wallace telephones Poot from his grandmother's house, but is simply homesick and has little to say. Bodie notices that Savino is wanted and Little Man has disappeared. They realize that the shooting must be tied to them. Bodie theorizes that someone has made mistakes and Avon will order his death. At Orlando's, Stringer orders D'Angelo to go with Wee-Bey. Neither Stringer nor Wee-Bey will tell him where they are going, leading D'Angelo to assume he will be killed. However, it turns out D'Angelo has been assigned to drive Wee-Bey to Philadelphia. Wallace phones Poot to ask for money to come home.

As warrants are served on Savino, Freamon and Prez find a page made to Stringer from a payphone near the scene of the shooting. Freamon has crime scene technicians dust the payphone and a nearby discarded drink can for fingerprints. McNulty shows up drunk to work, leading to a confrontation with Daniels. At Homicide, Bunk and Landsman suspect that the shooting was either a stick-up or a setup by the Barksdales. Freamon arrives to confirm that the fingerprints match Little Man. Bubbles, unaware of the shooting, is picked up by two uniformed officers after trying to page Greggs. A confused Bubbles is interrogated by Holley, who begins to beat him and has to be restrained by Landsman. McNulty returns Bubbles to Barksdale territory and gives him money to buy drugs, not realizing that he is trying to stay clean. Bubbles realizes that Wee-Bey and Little Man are the likely shooters and reports to McNulty, who passes the information on to Bunk. Bubbles again tries to tell McNulty that he is clean, but is cut off when McNulty has to leave. He is left holding the money that McNulty gave him.

McNulty threatens to investigate Levy's finances if he doesn't produce Savino. Pearlman berates him, noting that Levy is a powerful figure in Baltimore law. McNulty makes a remark about State's Attorneys that causes Pearlman to say that he will use anyone. Levy brings Savino in and claims that he had planned to defraud Orlando (by selling him baking soda, rather than actual cocaine), and was not involved in the shooting. Burrell tells Rawls, Foerster, and Daniels to organize citywide drug raids. Daniels tells his men that they will offer the cutting house Herc discovered, but will not tell them about the stash house they've uncovered, in order to protect the wire. However, Major Bobby Reed confronts Daniels about withholding targets, making him realize they have a mole in the detail. McNulty visits Phelan at a campaign fundraiser and fails to convince him to help with Burrell, as the judge has been reinstated on the mayor's ticket. Raids are made against the stash house, Savino's home, and the towers. Carver and Herc are alone when they find a pile of cash and keep some for themselves. Vast quantities of guns, narcotics, and money are seized and Frazier gets his photo opportunity. At the detail, work has all but ceased. Prez monitors light phone traffic (notably, missing Wallace's phone call to Poot requesting to come home, which the officers would have had a keen interest in, since they stashed Wallace with his grandmother in order to protect him), while Greggs remains on life support.

Persona 3

#### The Journey

Persona 3 begins on April 7, 2009, with the protagonist transferring to Gekkoukan High School and moving into a dorm in the city. After learning his ability to summon a Persona, he is asked to join SEES and is eventually elected its leader in combat. Additional members join SEES over time, all students attending Gekkoukan: Junpei, who had only recently discovered his ability to summon a Persona; Akihiko, whose arm injury prevented him from fighting; and Fuuka, who replaces Mitsuru as the team's support member. After awakening to his Persona ability, the protagonist is transported to the Velvet Room, which its proprietor, Igor, says is a realm between "dream and reality." Igor explains to him that his Persona ability is special: he is the only member of SEES capable of wielding multiple Personas in battle. In-game, the Velvet Room is where the player may fuse two or more Personas to create a new one. Igor also encourages the protagonist to meet people and form bonds with them, known as social links. According to Igor, the power of his social links will determine his potential in combat.

On nights when the moon is full, the city is attacked by a Shadow more powerful than the ones found in Tartarus. After several of these incidents, Mitsuru is forced to reveal to the team the origin of Tartarus and the Dark Hour. Ten years earlier, the Kirijo Group, a research company founded by Mitsuru's grandfather, began amassing and containing Shadows. They studied and performed experiments on them to harness their power. However, the experiments went awry, allowing the Shadows to escape and assemble into twelve larger creatures. Each is affiliated with one of the twelve Major Arcana. SEES' leader, Shuji Ikutsuki, informs them that if they were to defeat all twelve of the greater Shadows, Tartarus and the Dark Hour would disappear forever.

As the year continues, the group adds two more Persona-users to their team: Ken and Koromaru. While vacationing in Yakushima, Junpei, Akihiko, and the protagonist encounter Aigis, who had recently escaped the laboratory where she was kept, despite being deactivated for years. For reasons she cannot explain, she has a need to be near the protagonist, even breaking into his dorm room at night to monitor him. Aigis is also enlisted in SEES. After defeating the twelfth and final Shadow, SEES learns that Shuji Ikutsuki had misled them. By destroying the greater Shadows, they have freed parts of a being known as Nyx, which will bring about the end of the world if it is fully restored. Nyx, or the "maternal being," is the creator of Shadows; she is drawn to Earth by The Appriser, or "Death," a Shadow of the Death arcanum. SEES encounters The Appriser disguised as Ryoji Mochizuki, a recent transfer student to Gekkoukan High School.

The Shadow experiments performed ten years earlier created the Death Shadow, albeit in an incomplete state. Aigis, unable to defeat the Shadow, sealed it inside the protagonist, who was a child at the time. By defeating the twelve greater Shadows, the Death Shadow was recreated. Its purpose is to usher Nyx into the world, which will bring about the extinction of all life on Earth. Ryoji insists that Nyx cannot be defeated; however, he offers SEES an alternative. If they were to kill him, their memories of the Dark Hour and Tartarus would vanish, allowing them to continue life unaware of their impending death. Aigis, who now realizes why she wanted to protect the protagonist, begins to believe that she is useless. She urges SEES to kill Ryoji, as they cannot defeat Nyx. Through encouragement from her friends, however, she gains the resolve to join with SEES as they attempt to fight Nyx.

On December 31, New Year's Eve, the player must decide whether to kill Ryoji or spare his life. If the protagonist kills him, the game cuts to Graduation Day, with the entirety of SEES (barring Aigis) losing their memories of the Dark Hour and the Shadows, ending on a dark note as they prepare to celebrate in blissful ignorance until Nyx inevitably brings about The Fall and all of humanity dies. If he is spared, then the game continues, and on January 31, SEES ascends to the roof of Tartarus to face Ryoji, who has transformed into the Nyx Avatar. While they can defeat him, Nyx continues to descend to Earth. As this is happening, the protagonist is summoned to the Velvet Room, where Igor reminds him that the power of his social links would determine his potential. The protagonist hears the voices of his friends encouraging him. The strength of his social links grants him the power of the "Universe," allowing him to seal away Nyx from humanity. The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year related to the Dark Hour are lost to the members of SEES. However, Aigis and the protagonist do remember. On Graduation Day, the two go to the school's roof, where the members of SEES had promised to meet should they stop Nyx and live to see their graduation. As Mitsuru gives her graduation speech, she and the rest of SEES suddenly regain their memories, and the group rushes to the roof to fulfill the promise they all made. It is here that Aigis thanks the protagonist for giving her a purpose in life: protecting him.

#### The Answer

The events of The Answer begin on March 31, shortly after the end of the original game. During the opening sequence, it is revealed that the protagonist has died; the other characters speculate that his death is related to him defeating Nyx. The school year has ended, and the dorm is to be closed down soon. Aigis reveals to the group that she will not be attending school next year. During their last dinner party, the SEES members discover that they are trapped in their dorm and that the day March 31 is repeating itself. Later, a large door-like hole opens in the dorm floor, and SEES is attacked by Metis, an anti-shadow weapon similar to Aigis. In the midst of fighting Metis to protect her friends, Aigis's Persona, Athena, transforms into Orpheus, the original Persona of the protagonist. She also gains the protagonist's Wild Card ability. Aigis can subdue Metis, whose actions were an attempt to end the time skip and save Aigis, who she calls her "sister."

Underneath the dorm is the Abyss of Time, the cause of the time skip. The Abyss contains seven doors, the insides of which contain multi-floor dungeons, similar in design to Tartarus; in these areas, the game's combat occurs. At the bottom of each dungeon, the characters witness an event from the past of a member of SEES. After seeing several of these flashbacks, the characters discern that the event shown in each door relates to how that person had awakened to their Persona. At the bottom of the seventh and final door, SEES fights a Shadow-like version of the protagonist. After defeating it, each of them obtains a key. By combining the keys, they would be able to end the time skip and leave the dorm. However, Metis presents SEES with an alternative: instead of unlocking the front door of the dorm, they may also use the keys to travel back in time, to before the fight against Nyx and the death of the protagonist. Now unable to agree on how to use the keys, the characters determine that they must fight each other to decide; Yukari and Mitsuru wish to travel back in time and save the protagonist from his fate, Akihiko and Ken wish to honor his sacrifice and leave the dorm, while Junpei and Koromaru intend to act as a neutral party and hold the keys until the others can make a rational decision. Aigis, Fuuka, and Metis claim all eight keys, which fuse into the Final Key. After debating on what to do now, they discover a third, new door in the Abyss of Time, which the group uses (without the Final Key) to travel to the moment the protagonist sealed Nyx from the world.

Metis explains that the purpose of the seal created by the protagonist was not to seal away Nyx herself (who is not inherently evil) but to prevent humanity's despair from calling out to Nyx and bringing about the Fall once more. The subconscious will of humankind to despair and wish for death constantly rebirths a monster called Erebus that summons Nyx to destroy the world; Metis implies that Erebus's contact with Nyx is what caused the Fall (that was prevented by SEES). SEES realizes that the wishes that created Erebus also came from them, and so they fight it and can defeat it. Mitsuru points out that Erebus will return, as humans will never stop wishing for death. After breaking the time skip and exiting through the front door of the dorm with the Final Key, Metis, Aigis, and the rest of SEES are summoned to the Velvet Room, much to Igor's (pleasant) surprise. It is here they learn of Metis's true origins: that she is a manifestation of a part of Aigis's personality. Distraught over the protagonist's death, she no longer wanted to live like a human and wished to return to being a machine. However, after being set free from the Abyss of Time, Aigis changes her mind, deciding to continue to attend school, something she had chosen not to do earlier. Furthermore, the members of SEES decide to make the best out of their lives in order to honor and respect the protagonist's burden.

General Hospital (Blackadder)

George and Baldrick are playing "I spy", to Blackadder's great annoyance and boredom. However, the game is interrupted when a bomb lands on their trench, injuring George and sending him to the field hospital. There he meets the sweet-natured Nurse Mary Fletcher-Brown (Miranda Richardson), who helps George write letters to his relatives. Blackadder is ordered to General Melchett's HQ. There, Melchett and Captain Darling explain that there is a German spy in the hospital who has been leaking the British battle plans back to the Kaiser, although Blackadder expresses surprise that the army ''has'' battle plans. Melchett gives Blackadder three weeks to root out the spy, and states that if he succeeds he will be made head of a new intelligence network, Operation Winkle (to winkle out the spies). After Blackadder leaves, Darling expresses his mistrust and asks to go along to keep an eye on Blackadder. Melchett agrees and shoots Darling in the foot to give him a cover story.

Blackadder and Baldrick return to the hospital, where Blackadder orders Baldrick to keep an eye on "Mr. Smith", an injured soldier with a thick German accent who shares the ward with George. Darling shows up and, after expressing his lack of confidence in Blackadder's abilities, finds himself tied to a chair under intense interrogation. Mary arrives just as Blackadder releases a humiliated Darling. She reveals that her soppiness is just her bedside manner and that she is smarter and more cynical than Edmund initially suspected; the two enter into a sexual relationship.

Eventually Blackadder's investigation ends and he brings Mary along to HQ to see General Melchett about the intelligence leak which, Melchett explains, has become so bad that the Germans were able to send him a reminder that he was due to change his shirts. Mary says that she suspects Darling because of his "pooh-poohing" of Blackadder – a court-martial offence somewhat similar to insubordination. Mary also voices her suspicion of Smith, but Blackadder dismisses him as too obvious, reasoning that the Germans would never send a man with such an obvious accent. Edmund says that Mary herself is the spy, a fact he verified over their time together (through, among other factors, her proficiency in German and her inquisitions into British tank movements). Baldrick leads Mary away as Melchett picks up the phone to organise a firing squad. "Mr. Smith" enters the room, followed by Darling, who claims Smith is the spy. However, Melchett reveals that the man is a ''British'' spy: Brigadier-General Sir Bernard Proudfoot-Smith, the finest spy in the army and the one who tipped Melchett off about the spy in the hospital. Smith explains that his German accent is one he has developed due to his time undercover in Germany. Melchett rewards Blackadder by making him the head of Operation Winkle, denounces Darling as a "complete arse," and he and Smith leave to watch Mary's execution. George enters the room and unwittingly reveals himself as the leak when he remarks that the relative he has been writing to is, in fact, his uncle Hermann in Munich. Darling smugly confronts Blackadder, and the two race out of the room to inform Melchett.

Baldr Force

As a hacker of the renowned hacking group "Steppenwolf", and his partners earn their living by hacking into servers and selling the information they steal.

As the last hacking before disbanding their group, they hacked into a military server, but soon they find this is a setup by the military to lure terrorists, and they were drawn into battle between two factions. At the end, one of Tōru Sōma's friends was killed by an unknown Simulacrum, while most other group members have been arrested. To investigate and avenge his friend's death, Tōru accepted the offer to join the military.

Baldr Force

An entire world exists unseen, a world that can be accessed only by the mind ... the Wired World. A place of freedom. And occasionally a place of death.

Tōru Sōma knows the land of the logged-in well, for he and his fearless gang of hackers once had the run of the place. But as tragedy came to call and the group disbanded, he was forced to join the ranks of FLAK; a military organization charged with protecting the hidden data paradise deep within the vast network of servers. Indentured into service and out for revenge, Tōru cannot let go of the dead of the past even as a ghost of the present takes shape.

Tōru with the loneliness and confusion of being trapped between two worlds, there is only one question ... What is reality?

Lifepod

On Christmas Eve 2169 AD, a ship traveling through space suffers a critical malfunction. Eight passengers and crew escape to a lifepod, just before the spaceship explodes, killing all others on board.

The survivors attempt to broadcast a distress signal and wait for rescue. As the days wear on, the lifepod suffers a series of setbacks and malfunctions: air and heat become limited, along with food and potable water. As supplies dwindle, the survivors debate whether, to conserve their supplies, they should prematurely end the life of a critically injured survivor who is consuming a disproportionate amount of supplies.

One morning, the survivors wake up to discover their critically injured crewmate dead. The survivors realize there is a killer hiding among them on the lifepod. Eventually the survivors realize that it's possible that one of the people in the Lifepod could have sabotaged the spacecraft, and who wouldn't balk at killing them to keep himself alive.

Bang! Gunship Elite

The excitement begins when one accepts the controls behind a futuristic space fighter. The war has taken a turn for the worse and fighter pilots are few and scarce in the Twin Suns solar system. The Kha reserves have been drained, and the Alliance has nowhere to turn except to a rookie who must prematurely aid them in the war effort. Players will join this Gunship Elite in order to save the Alliance's crusade and ultimately defeat the Sektar and the bloodthirsty Morgoths. The missions will be complex and next to impossible given the circumstances. Pilots will have to fly solo, kamikaze style, without any tactical support in order to accomplish their mission.

Son of Lassie

In Yorkshire, at the estate of the Duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce), the British Army converted the grounds into a training camp for war dogs. The camp is placed under the supervision of Sam Carraclough (Donald Crisp), the kennel caretaker, who immediately begins the process of selecting the best dogs for training, including Laddie, the young pup of the champion collie, Lassie. Joe Carraclough (Peter Lawford), now an adult, joins the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. Departing for training school, he is forced to leave behind his dog Lassie and her pup, Laddie.

Laddie, being considered as a "war dog", follows Joe to training school and then stows away on his master's bomber, just as it takes off on a dangerous mission over Nazi-occupied Norway. The two are forced to parachute when hit by enemy fire. Laddie then seeks help for his injured master. While they are separated, Joe is captured, and the dog is pursued by enemy soldiers. Laddie is sheltered, first by young Norwegian children who find him, and later by a freedom-fighter who is killed. Laddie finally reaches the prisoner-of-war camp where his master had been taken.

The German guards use Laddie to seek out his master who had escaped. In his search for Joe, who is forced into a labor detail on a coastal gun emplacement, Laddie is reunited with his master and thereafter the two race for their lives to reach friendly lines as the Nazis pursue them. Finally free, both Joe and Laddie make their way back to the Rudling estate to reunite with Lassie, Sam Carraclough, Joe's father and Priscilla (June Lockhart), the Duke of Rudling's granddaughter.

The Princess and the Frog

In 1926 New Orleans, Tiana is completely devoted to opening her own restaurant, a dream she shared with her late father, who died in World War I. She works two waitress jobs to earn money to make this dream a reality, leaving her no time for a social life.

Prince Naveen of Maldonia arrives in New Orleans where, being financially cut off, he intends to marry a rich Southern belle like Tiana's best friend, Charlotte La Bouff. Her father, wealthy Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, hosts a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor, for which Charlotte hires Tiana to make beignets, offering her enough to buy a dilapidated mill to convert into her dream restaurant. Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, encounter Dr. Facilier, a voodoo witch doctor, who tricks them into a fortune reading. Then, he transforms Naveen into a frog and gives Lawrence Naveen's appearance through a voodoo talisman containing Naveen's blood. Facilier intends for the disguised Lawrence to marry Charlotte, then to kill her father with a voodoo doll so he can gain the La Bouff fortune.

At the ball, Tiana is told by the realtors, the Fenner Brothers, that she has been outbid for the mill. Despondent, Tiana wishes on the evening star for her dream to come true. She then meets Naveen in frog form who, believing her to be a princess, asks for a kiss to break Facilier's spell. Tiana reluctantly accepts after Naveen promises to finance her restaurant. Instead Tiana transforms into a frog as she is not a true princess. The two are chased into a bayou where they meet a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis, who dreams of playing jazz. After informing Louis they are actually humans under a voodoo spell, he tells them of Mama Odie, another voodoo practitioner who lives in the bayou and they all go in search of her.

They are guided to Mama Odie by a Cajun firefly named Ray, who is enamoured with the Evening Star, believing it is a firefly named "Evangeline," as no one has the heart to tell him otherwise. During the journey, Tiana and Naveen begin developing feelings for each other. Meanwhile, the talisman disguising Lawrence as Naveen needs more of Naveen's blood or Lawrence will return to his normal appearance. Discovering Naveen has escaped, Facilier asks the voodoo spirits (his "friends on the other side") to help retrieve him, offering them the souls of the people of New Orleans in exchange, and they grant him an army of shadow demons to do his bidding.

Mama Odie tells Naveen the spell can only be broken with a princess's kiss. They realize that as Big Daddy has been crowned Mardi Gras king, Charlotte will be a princess until midnight. Though Naveen has fallen for Tiana, he selflessly decides to help finance her dream restaurant by marrying Charlotte. The shadow demons find and capture Naveen and bring him to Facilier, who uses his blood to replenish the talisman. After hearing from Ray how Naveen feels about her, Tiana heads to the Mardi Gras parade to find him, only to see Lawrence, masquerading as Naveen, marrying Charlotte. Heartbroken and now believing she will forever be a frog, Tiana flees the scene.

Ray rescues the real Naveen and steals the talisman, which he gives to Tiana before Facilier mortally wounds him. Facilier offers to make Tiana's dream come true in exchange for the talisman. Realizing she would rather be with Naveen and that she would be dishonoring her father by accepting, Tiana destroys it. With Facilier's plan foiled, the voodoo spirits drag him into their world for failing to pay back his debt. After Lawrence is exposed and arrested, Tiana reveals her love to Naveen and Charlotte agrees to kiss Naveen so he and Tiana can be human, but the clock strikes midnight and the kiss fails. Ray dies shortly thereafter and during his funeral a new star appears next to Evangeline. Tiana and Naveen are married by Madam Odie and, as doing so makes Tiana a princess, both are restored to human form after their kiss. They later return to New Orleans to legally marry and open their restaurant together, with Louis playing in the band.

Out to Lunch (TV program)

In the program, ABC News anchor Bill Beutel and his stage manager wrapped up a newscast, and left the studio to take a lunch break. After they leave, the Muppets and the cast of ''The Electric Company'' take over the studio, to fill an hour of programming on ABC while the studio staff is on break.

Pilot (Jericho)

Thirty-two-year-old Jake Green returns for a short visit to his small hometown of Jericho in northern Kansas following a mysterious five-year absence. While he was away, Jake had no contact with any of his family or friends, except possibly his mother Gail. Jake is evasive about his absence; he is asked where he has been by various Jericho residents, and he gives different answers – including claims to have been playing minor league baseball and serving in both the Army and Navy.

Jake's mother, Gail, who apparently knows where Jake has been, is very happy and relieved to see him. Jake discusses with his father, Mayor Johnston Green, the inheritance Jake's grandfather left him. Johnston refuses to release the money to Jake until Jake leads what Johnston calls "a more productive life". Afterwards, Jake goes to visit his grandfather's grave. Despite his mother's objections. Jake leaves Jericho that same day, telling his mother that he must return to San Diego.

As Jake leaves town, the President addresses a joint session of the United States Congress about a rise in global violence. Simultaneously, all the television and radio stations and telephone communication go dead. At the same time, some residents of the town see a mushroom cloud on the horizon, in the direction of Denver, Colorado over a mountain range. On the highway, another driver, distracted by the cloud, drifts into the opposing lane, where Jake is driving, also distracted. The cars collide, killing the occupants of the other car and knocking Jake unconscious.

Meanwhile, a school bus is returning from a field trip, late because it had to stop for repairs, with the elementary-school-aged children of Jericho. Heather Lisinski, the teacher accompanying them, notices the mushroom cloud. The children are watching a deer running next to the bus for a few seconds; it then crosses in front of the bus and is hit, causing the bus to swerve off the road.

On the highway, Jake regains consciousness and finds that he has a leg injury. He finds the passengers in the other vehicle dead. He begins walking back toward town, and shortly afterwards encounters two children who have ventured from the bus in search of help. Jake makes it to the bus, where he finds the driver dead and Heather with a broken leg. Only one of the children is injured, but she is having significant difficulty breathing and is in mortal danger. Jake performs an emergency tracheotomy, using straws from the children's juice boxes and band-aids to create a temporary airway. He then drives the bus back to town.

While searching for the children, Sheriff Dawes and Deputy Riley find a prison bus that has crashed. They mistake it for the school bus, and are both shot while investigating.

In town, Dale Turner discovers a message from his mother on his answering machine. The end of the message is interrupted by a large explosion heard in the background. Dale later plays the message for a group of adults at the Greens' house. Gail offers condolences to Dale, saying that she hadn't known Dale's mother was visiting Denver. Dale tells the group that his mother wasn't visiting Denver but rather was in Atlanta, Georgia. Earlier, Mayor Green had tried to calm citizens by speculating that the Denver incident was isolated and possibly a military accident instead of a widespread enemy attack. Shortly after, Gail informs the mayor about the second explosion in Atlanta.

Residents swarm the gas station to fill up their cars and trucks. Electrical power fails. The situation comes close to a riot before Mayor Green arrives and calms the crowd, temporarily. The townspeople press the mayor for answers, and at one point he reveals that there was another explosion in Atlanta. The situation almost escalates again, but calms down when the school bus arrives with the children. Jake tells the crowd to help the children, and informs his brother that he drove past a prison bus that had crashed. With no means of communication and no power, Jerichoans are isolated from the outside world — not knowing what is left of that world, or how many others are still alive — and must find means of survival in the midst of panic and chaos.

The episode ends with Emily Sullivan, an old friend of Jake who is seemingly unaware of the day's events, driving on an isolated rural road. She is on her way to the airport to meet with her fiancé, who is returning from a trip. Feeling bumps in the road, she stops the car and gets out to see what the problem is. The road is covered with dead birds that seemingly just dropped from the sky.

The Grudge 3

After the events of the second film, Jake Kimble is under the care of Dr. Sullivan in an asylum. He is locked in his room following several escape attempts and is attacked by Kayako. The attack is seen on security cameras, although her ghost cannot be seen, and Jake is dead by the time Sullivan arrives with a security officer. News of the incident reaches Tokyo, Japan as Kayako's younger sister Naoko, aware of her older sister's haunting, travels to Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The apartment building where Jake lived is under renovation. Of the few residents who remain, some glimpse Toshio. Several people associated with the cursed apartment begin to die, including Renee's mute daughter Brenda, Rose's babysitter and family friend Gretchen, Lisa's boyfriend Andy, and Max's boss Mr. Praski. Sullivan, while investigating Jake's death, speaks with the residents and finds that others have seen the little boy of whom Jake spoke. Sullivan digs more into the information and is killed by Kayako.

Naoko moves in while the ghosts of Kayako and Toshio kill various residents and anyone associated with them. She tells the landlord's family that the curse now resides in the apartment and tries to convince them to participate in an exorcism. The landlord's sister, Lisa, refuses to cooperate but reconsiders when she realizes that her brother, Max, is possessed by Takeo's spirit, and the source of the curse. Naoko warns that the ceremony must not be interrupted and tells Lisa and Max's sister, Rose, that she must drink Kayako's blood. Lisa refuses. The possessed Max realizes Naoko's attempts and kills her. Lisa is chased by Kayako until, just as the croaking onryō is about to kill Lisa, Rose drinks Kayako's blood which causes her curse to disappear.

Max, who has been exorcised of Takeo's evil possession upon Kayako's banishment, stares in horror at the body of Naoko, but her murder has begun a new curse. Naoko's ghost attacks and kills him. The film ends with Kayako shown to have possessed Rose.

Mansfield Park (1999 film)

At the age of 10, Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, as her own parents do not have enough money to support their many children. Once at Mansfield Park, Fanny meets her cousins Tom Jr., Maria, Edmund, and Julia, as well as Fanny's other maternal aunt, Mrs Norris. Fanny does not feel welcome, and Mrs Norris treats her more like a servant than a relative. Edmund behaves kindly to her, and the two develop a friendship that grows as the years progress.

When Fanny is eighteen, Sir Thomas and his eldest son Tom travel to Antigua. In their absence, the Bertram family is disrupted by the arrival of Henry and Mary Crawford, relatives of the local clergyman. Worldly, cynical and beautiful, Mary and Henry arrive looking for amusement. Edmund is instantly smitten with Mary, somewhat ignoring and hurting Fanny. Maria and Julia both vie for Henry's affections, even though Maria is already engaged to Mr Rushworth. Henry shamelessly flirts with Maria. Later, Tom returns from Antigua, arriving drunk and bringing a friend, Mr Yates, with him. Yates and Tom convince the Bertrams and Crawfords to stage a risque play, ''Lovers' Vows''. The play allows the young people to openly flirt with each other. Edmund initially speaks out against the play but changes his mind when he is offered a part that allows him to act out flirtatious scenes with Mary. Sir Thomas arrives home and in anger immediately stops the play.

Maria marries Rushworth, esteeming his fortune above his character. Henry decides to pursue Fanny as a means to amuse himself. However, Fanny's gentle and kind nature gradually captures his fancy, and Henry becomes emotionally attached to her. After his behaviour towards the Bertram girls, Fanny mistrusts him and does not believe his declarations of love. Even so, Henry proposes and Fanny is pressured by her uncle to accept the offer; she disappoints the family by refusing. Angry, Sir Thomas gives Fanny an ultimatum: accept Henry's proposal of marriage or be sent back to her poor family and experience the difference in comfort. Fanny looks to Edmund for support, but his indifference forces her to choose the latter. Several days after her return home, Henry pays a visit to convince Fanny that his affections for her are genuine. Although she looks more favourably on him, Fanny continues to cling to her feelings for Edmund and rejects Henry. Only when a letter from Edmund arrives which discloses his hopes of marrying Mary does Fanny accept Henry's offer. However, Fanny realizes she does not trust him, and takes back her acceptance the next day. Henry leaves, exceedingly hurt and angry. Edmund arrives to take Fanny back to Mansfield Park to help care for Tom, who has fallen seriously ill and is near death. Edmund confesses he has missed Fanny.

Henry gains Maria's pity when she learns of Fanny's refusal of his marriage proposal, and they are found having sex by Fanny and Edmund. Shocked, Fanny is comforted by Edmund and the two nearly kiss, but Edmund pulls away. News of the scandal spreads rapidly and Mary quickly devises a plan to stifle the repercussions. She suggests that after a divorce, Maria would marry Henry while Edmund would marry Mary; together they might re-introduce Henry and Maria back into society by throwing parties. Fanny questions Mary as to how a clergyman could afford lavish parties, and Mary shocks everyone by stating that when Tom dies, Edmund will be heir to the family's fortune. Edmund is appalled and tells Mary that cheerfully condemning Tom to death whilst she plans to spend his money sends a chill to his heart. Having betrayed her true nature to the Bertram family, Mary leaves the Bertrams' company. Edmund ultimately declares his love for Fanny, and they marry. Sir Thomas gives up his plantation in Antigua and invests instead in tobacco, while Tom recovers from his illness. Fanny's sister Susie joins them at the Bertram household while Maria and Aunt Norris take up residence in a small cottage removed from Mansfield Park.

You Can't Win 'Em All

The setting is the time of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and the end of the Ottoman Empire. Two American soldiers of fortune – Adam (Curtis) and Josh (Bronson) – team up in 1922 Turkey with separate missions. Josh is interested in profiting from the turmoil prevailing as the Ottoman Empire collapses. Adam, the surviving heir to a shipping company, hopes to reclaim a ship seized by the Germans during World War I and interned in a Turkish Port. Before they can achieve their goals, they are captured by the forces of Osman Bey, an Ottoman governor. Osman Bey is impressed by the Americans' firepower – which includes Thompson submachine guns – and enlists them in a mission to escort his daughters, seemingly to Mecca, but really to Cairo. Because of the war, Turkish ports are blockaded by the British. Knowing that an American ship is not subject to the blockade, Adam suggests using the one held by the Turks, once they have returned it to him.

With Osman Bey's consent, the group sets off for the coast with Osman Bey's daughters, and also their guardian, the beautiful and formidable Aila. Along the way, they must contend with the dangers of the terrain, the war, the machinations of Osman Bey's opportunistic Colonel and also each other's greed. They also begin to realize that the Bey wasn't open with them about the real object of their mission, to safeguard a priceless treasure from the empire's enemies.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Set in the mid-2000s, the series follows the story of Perseus "Percy" Jackson, a boy who discovers he is a demigod son of Poseidon. He was abandoned by his father because of an oath made by the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades), the sons of Cronus, to not father any more children after World War II. The oath was sworn since the demigod children of the three gods are too powerful and have potential for great bloodshed (in-universe, World War II was a fight between children of the Big Three). Percy's journey turns even more electrifying when he discovers that numerous people and ancient monsters are trying to kill him due to his status as a demigod, latent strength, and growing influence in the Greek world. Percy also finds out that there are even more demigods like him in Camp Half-Blood, a training camp in Long Island.

With his friend Annabeth Chase, and his best friend and companion Grover Underwood (a satyr who Percy finds out is actually his protector), his journey across the frightening mystic worlds begins. Percy soon finds himself fulfilling extraordinary quests, prophecies, and fighting battles with and for the gods against the rising threat of the Titans. He also finds himself at a crossroads: either he helps in the destruction of the world, or in preserving it.

Riot in Cell Block 11

One night, several prison inmates take guards prisoner to protest brutal conditions in their prison. They then make their demands known to prison warden Reynolds (Emile Meyer), a liberal-minded administrator who has complained for many years about the same conditions. James V. Dunn (Neville Brand), the prisoners' leader, meets the press outside the cell block and makes demands that they will no longer tolerate the brutal guards, substandard food, overcrowding, and barely livable conditions.

The next day inmates from two other blocks start a riot but they are forced back into the cell blocks by the state police. Negotiations between the inmates and prison officials are stymied by the state politicians who do not want to make any concessions.

Meanwhile, factions within the prisoners begin to vie for power and control within the rebellious cell block. At the same time, the state police are given the go ahead to blow a hole in the wall to end the siege. But unknown to them, the inmates inside create a human shield by tying the hostages to the interior wall.

Just in the nick of time, the governor agrees to sign a petition from the prisoners. The riot ends when the inmates see the next-day newspapers saying that they had won. But it is a pyrrhic victory for the leader, Dunn. Two weeks later he is called to the warden's office. The state legislature had overturned the governor's signature thus repudiating all the prisoners' demands.

The Warden tells Dunn that he will stand trial for leading the riot and taking hostages, charges that will mostly likely mean an additional 30-year sentence. But the Warden, who explains that he is to be replaced, tells Dunn that he did get a small victory: the mentally-ill inmates are to be moved to asylums and some prisoners will be paroled. The Warden tells Dunn that his actions were front-page news which may bring about some good.

La Noche de Walpurgis

Following the events in ''The Fury of the Wolf Man'', the deceased lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky is revived to life when two country doctors surgically remove two silver bullets from his heart while performing an autopsy on him. Waldemar transforms into a werewolf, kills the doctors and escapes from the morgue. Some time later, two students, Elvira (named after Naschy's real-life wife of 40 years) and her friend Genevieve, go searching for the tomb of medieval murderess Countess Wandessa Darvula de Nadasdy. They find a possible gravesite in the vicinity of Waldemar Daninsky's castle, and the handsome count invites the girls to stay for a few days while they investigate the site.

When Waldemar helps them to uncover the grave of Countess Wandessa, Elvira accidentally revives the vampire by bleeding onto her corpse. The vampire woman turns several young women including Genevieve into creatures of the night like herself, and they roam the forest at night, killing people in eerie slow motion. Daninsky later turns into the Wolf Man, is forced to battle and destroy the vampire countess at the end of the film, after which he is killed by Elvira, a woman who loves him enough to end his torment. She plunges a silver cross into Waldemar's chest.

Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959 film)

The plot of the film reprises that of the 1932 version, with James Parker (Robert Douglas) Harry Holt (Cesare Danova) and Parker's daughter Jane (Joanna Barnes) on an expedition in Africa in which they encounter Tarzan (Denny Miller), a wild man raised by apes. Various adventures ensue.

Le Café des Rêves

The plot follows five young people named Serge, Marco, Nathalie, Isabelle and Djamal as they redecorate and run a cafe. Originally named "Café des Abattoirs", which means Slaughterhouse Café, the teenagers rename it "Café des Rêves", meaning "Café of Dreams". The main character is Serge, a fifteen-year-old boy. His dad goes to Africa to work as a chef, so he stays at his parents' café under the tutelage of his grandmother. His friends are Nathalie, Isabelle, Djamal and Marco. Nathalie has a crush on Serge but doesn't admit it. Marco loves to rap and wants to be a rapper, which isn't surprising due to his incredible rapping skills that he demonstrates on numerous occasions throughout the show. Isabelle and Djamal are dating. Isabelle's mother doesn't like Djamal because he is an Arab, and doesn't want Isabelle seeing him. Djamal has an older brother, Karim, who is having some problems with debt. Karim borrowed money from two guys, Gérard and Bertrand, who want their money back. A young English man called Wayne (played by Jake Wood) soon shows up, homeless and seemingly on the hunt for things to steal. Mme Lambin, Serge's grandmother, goes out on the town, but is viciously attacked by a mystery person, who drives off in a sports car. Mme Lambin is in a coma, and is rushed to the hospital.

Marco throws his rap concert. Everyone enjoyed it.

But the plot thickens. The police find out that Serge is living by himself and attempt to put him in an orphanage. Just before they enter the building, however, Mme Lambin's friends and Isabelle's mother show up with papers informing the police of Serge's situation, namely that Serge will be under the guardianship of Dédé and Jeannot (his grandmother's friends) – his father is in Africa, his grandmother in the hospital. Isabelle's mother admits that she called the police in the first place, as she was bitter about Isabelle and Djamal. She appears to fully regret her actions. As Serge leaves, a mysterious boy stares down at him from a high window, his hands pressed against the glass. The police officer (Officer Briand) let Serge go, as he saw Serge was under a guardian.

Serge goes to visit his grandmother in the hospital, and she calls Serge's name, waking from her coma.

Karim's plotline resolves itself as well. He confesses to Serge that it was he who stole Mme Lambin's purse, and that while trying to defend herself she hit her head. Serge is speechless. Angry, he later tells Gérard and Bertrand where Karim is. Immediately after doing this, however, Serge exclaims, "''Qu'est-ce que j'ai fait?''" ("What have I done?") and runs back to the café for back-up before racing on his bike to warn Karim. Karim and his pursuers partake in an elaborate chase which ends with Karim hanging precariously from the roof of an old mine building where he had been hiding, unable to pull himself up. Serge's back-up (Marco, Nathalie, Isabelle and Djamal) arrives, forcing Gérard and Bertrand to abandon Karim, telling him he has two days to get them the money. Serge rescues Karim to the admiration of his friends, particularly Nathalie, who professes her love for Serge ("''Oh, je t'aime!''") which is enthusiastically reciprocated.

Back at the café, everyone celebrates Mme Lambin's recovery. Karim has decided to sell his Porsche to pay back his debts. Wayne's true love, Angelique had come to France to find and meet Wayne, shows up as well and they have a happy reunion.

Loose Cannons (1990 film)

A film is found that features young German officer Kirk von Metz sleeping with Adolf Hitler. Years later, von Metz, running for chancellor of West Germany, arranges for anyone who has seen the film to be murdered. The killings take place in the Washington D.C. area, and Metropolitan Police officers MacArthur "Mac" Stern and Ellis Fielding are sent to investigate the crimes.

Ellis suffers from a dissociative identity disorder stemming from a disastrous undercover drug sting, which is aggravated when he is confronted with violence. This results in several episodes where he blacks out and assumes the personalities of popular culture characters, including Popeye, Captain Kirk and the Road Runner.

Mac and Ellis attempt to track down the film through pornographer Harry "The Hippo" Gutterman, who informs them that to do so they need to get to New York City. They decide to take a train, but first must evade a team of FBI agents led by Bob Smiley, who must shield von Metz from embarrassment by intercepting the film before it goes public. They all meet up at Washington's Union Station, where Mac and Ellis trick Smiley and his team into boarding the New York-bound train they originally intended to take, while they jump off and hop onto one on the opposite track bound for Cleveland instead. While on board that train, Mac notices another undercover team that has been trailing them, which is revealed to be led by Rebecca "Riva" Lowengrin, a Mossad agent assigned to the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.

After surviving a helicopter attack on the train by Nazi sympathizers, Mac, Ellis and Gutterman jump off a bridge into a river and eventually make their way to New York. En route, Ellis confides in Mac his fear that if another episode occurs it could prove irrevocable, which would make him a dangerous liability, and wishes to return to the Benedictine Monks who originally looked after him during his recovery. Mac, however, reiterates his belief in Ellis and shows him that he is strong enough to persevere, move forward and recover; that the past is irrelevant and that the present and the future are what matter. Consequently, Ellis regains his courage and the will to fight. Mac finds the film in a locker on one of the upper levels of Grand Central Terminal and, during an exchange of gunfire with more Nazis, throws the film to Riva, who has just arrived on the main concourse below. It is screened that same evening during a speech that von Metz delivers. Mac, Ellis and Gutterman all suffer gunshot wounds and, as the movie ends, are seen recuperating in the same hospital. Mac jokes to Ellis that he is converting to Judaism that evening in order to move to Israel to join the Mossad but is uncomfortable about undergoing circumcision. Ellis catches on to the humor and points out that they work together so well as partners because technically, Mac is crazier than he is.

Quick Millions (1931 film)

Daniel "Bugs" Raymond (Spencer Tracy) is a truck driver who is tired of working for a living and not getting ahead. He realizes the trucks and their drivers are making the business owners rich and hatches a protection racket where he controls the use of the trucks and men to drive them. Along the way, he sees Dorothy Stone (Marguerite Churchill), a wealthy woman "with class," and wants her, although he has a girlfriend Daisy (Sally Eilers). Dorothy is engaged to another. Bugs maneuvers his way into the business of Dorothy's brother (who recognizes he will lose everything without Bugs) and participates in society. Bugs and his buddies steal incriminating evidence from corrupt politicians and law enforcement in order to keep them from going after the protection racket. There are great scenes of the gang, including a dance number of Jimmy Kirk (George Raft). Kirk is one of Raymond's lieutenants and he commits murder for hire of a journalist for one of Raymond's competitors, "Nails" (Warner Richmond), who wants to take over the lucrative racket. Bugs then has to take care of Kirk, and society has had enough of the lawlessness and racketeering. The newsreels and politicians speak out against Bugs—making him angry. He decides to crash "in morning coats" Dorothy's society wedding with all his gang and show how he is now a part of society. He delivers his philosophy of how he is as much law-abiding as those in power. Daisy is upset, feeling some foreboding. On their way to the wedding, and during a wedding montage, Bugs is assassinated by Nails and the story comes to an end.

Red Trousers – The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen

This documentary from Robin Shou—who also hosts and participates in the film—takes a behind-the-scenes glance inside the stunt industry of Hong Kong, which is known for being riskier and less trick-oriented than its American counterpart. In addition to archival and interview footage featuring some of the industry's most prominent stuntmen, Red Trousers - The Life of Hong Kong Stuntmen incorporates scenes from adventure short action film ''Lost Time'' (2001) in an effort to illustrate how stuntmen prepare for and ultimately perform in modern martial arts films.

Dragon Princess

The film opens with Isshin Higaki (Sonny Chiba) and his daughter Yumi Higaki (Etsuko Shihomi) being attacked by a rival karate master, Hironobu Nikaido (Bin Amatsu) who wants Isshin's job as top karate master. Nikaido teams up with four other masters and they manage to disable one of Isshin's arms and wound his eye with a kunai knife. Alive but crippled Isshin and Yumi retreat to New York where he trains his daughter to avenge him and the death of a friend. After her father's death, Yumi returns to Tokyo to take her revenge. She enters a karate tournament funded by a corrupt business man, but Nikaido, seeking to assure his student's supremacy in the coming fight, sends his four top fighters to wipe out the rest of the competition. Eventually, Yumi, with the help of another karate student, Masahiko Okizaki (Yasuaki Kurata) kills Nikaido and his minions. Her arm is permanently disabled, keeping her from continuing her karate but allowing her to continue on with the rest of her life.

Snakes on a Train

Although taking the same basic idea from ''Snakes on a Plane'' (many deadly snakes loose on a claustrophobic, high-speed means of transport), the background story of how the snakes end up on the train differs.

In the film, a woman has been put under a Mayan curse which causes snake eggs to hatch inside her belly and eat their way out. In order to recover the "lost pieces" of herself (the snakes), she must travel to Los Angeles where a powerful Mayan shaman can lift the curse. She takes the snakes along with her in small jars. While on the train, bandits attack her, allowing the snakes to escape, endangering the other passengers.

Eventually, and inexplicably, she herself transforms into a gigantic snake and swallows the moving train whole.

Six passengers manage to escape unharmed, and one of them performs a magic ritual which causes her to vanish. However, one girl is shown to have been unknowingly bitten, suggesting that the curse will remain.

It! (1967 film)

A London museum's warehouse burns down, leaving undamaged a statue that the museum curator, Mr. Grove, identifies as "Mid-European Primitive". Grove is mysteriously killed while inspecting the artifact when his assistant, Arthur Pimm, is sent to fetch a flashlight for him. This begins a series of unexplained deaths and calamities connected with the statue, which is later positively identified as the Golem of Judah Loew of the 16th century. An inscription in Hebrew heightens the suspense and horror of the plot:

Arthur Pimm, a Norman Bates-like character, who keeps his mother's corpse in his apartment and borrows museum jewelry exhibits to adorn it, brings the Golem to life by placing a small scroll containing the Hebrew word "emeth" ("truth") into its mouth, which he finds in a compartment located at the top of the Golem's right foot. The Golem then becomes Pimm's accomplice in murder and mayhem, contrary to its original purpose to defend its community. When the Golem is suspected of bringing about the catastrophic destruction of Hammersmith Bridge, Pimm tries to destroy it. This is impossible, as the inscription predicts: ''"for neither by fire, nor water, nor force, nor anything by man created"'' can it be destroyed. This is borne out in the final scenes of the film by the detonation of a small nuclear warhead in an attempt to stop it.

Caught up in all of this is Ellen Grove, the daughter of the first deceased curator whom Pimm is in love with, but she falls in love with Jim Perkins of the New York Museum, who identifies the Golem and seeks to acquire it for his museum. Perkins exposes Pimm to the police, and Pimm is committed to an insane asylum. He breaks out of the asylum and kidnaps Ellen with the help of the Golem. Pimm holes up in the museum's annex in the country known as "the Cloisters". Perkins dramatically saves Ellen from the aforementioned nuclear explosion that vaporizes both Pimm and "the Cloisters", but not the Golem which, for unknown reasons, retreats into the sea.

Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil

The story is not linked to the first part of the series. Instead, it focuses on a fictional explanation for the Ryanggang explosion in 2004, in which an unexplained mushroom cloud occurred in North Korea.

After reconnaissance satellites detect a large, three-stage Topol intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear weapon in North Korea, which can strike anywhere in the continental United States, United States President Adair T. Manning (Peter Coyote) orders a team of U.S. Navy SEALs, led by Lieutenant Robert James (Nicholas Gonzalez), to destroy the missile and the launch site.

The Pentagon aborts the mission after receiving new information, but by the time the abort order is sent, two SEALs have already parachuted into North Korean territory. James stops the third SEAL from deploying, accidentally knocking the man's helmet against the status indicator mounted near the door. He steps onto the makeshift ramp to peer outside, returning to the doorway to inform the other men of the abort. The high-speed winds from outside rip the indicator loose and send it flying into his face. Stumbling backwards, James loses his balance and is blown out of the plane. Master Chief Neil T. "Spaz" Callaghan (Matt Bushell) disobeys orders to stand fast, strikes his commanding officer, and follows the first three, taking a radio with him. When North Korean forces led by Commander Hwang (Joseph Steven Yang) find the SEALs, they kill two in a gun battle, and Hwang and his men capture and torture James and Callaghan.

After South Korean special forces rescue the pair, President Manning and the South Korean government send the SEALs and South Korean special forces to destroy the missile site. But after losing radio contact with the SEALs, the President and his top advisers believe that they have been captured again. Under pressure from his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Air Force General Norman T. Vance (Bruce McGill), the President decides to send B-2 stealth bombers to destroy the site, which would start a full-scale war against North Korea. Hwang almost recaptures the SEALs and the South Korean special forces, but a defecting officer shoots him. James and the South Koreans destroy the missile silo with a bomb before the bombers reach the missile site, which averts the bombing and prevents a full-scale war.

A tribunal convicts Callaghan of striking an officer (1 year) and disobeying an officer (10 years). Due to the mission's "black op" nature, the transcript of the hearing is deemed classified and the charges are expunged from his record, freeing him to return to his family.

Meanwhile, James meets the president in a classified meeting, bringing his mentor Master Chief Scott Boytano (Keith David) to witness James receive an award. The film closes with Boytano telling James he was not red flagged because Boytano had never seen anyone who desired so badly as James did to be a SEAL. During the credits there is a news report on the Ryanggang explosion.

Glass House: The Good Mother

The film tells the story of Abby (Jordan Hinson) and Ethan Snow (Bobby Coleman), who lose their parents in a tragic accident and are adopted by Eve (Angie Harmon) and Raymond Goode (Joel Gretsch), two seemingly-ideal parents who have recently lost a child of their own, David.

At first things seem good, but the first oddity manifests when Ethan gets his own room with a bathroom close to the master bedroom but Abby is given a bedroom far away, up in the tower of the house. From here, Abby notices a lot of strange things; there's a bed in the basement with David's name carved into the support post near it and there are many places they can't enter, including David's old bedroom. They are not allowed to make phone calls either. Eve and Abby get into a fight at the dinner table, and Eve slaps Abby. Later on, Eve asks Abby to wash dishes. As Abby is washing them, she cuts her arm on broken glass that Eve purposely left in the sink for her. Abby demands to be taken to the hospital, but Eve refuses and brings out a box of medical supplies. Raymond reveals that Eve was a nurse, and Eve makes the process as painful as she possibly can, including a shot, and stitches without any anesthetic. Later, Abby is seen sleeping, and Eve injects her with an unknown substance. Abby awakes, too late to do anything, except ask what the liquid is, Eve responds with "This is for pain," Abby replies, that she's not in pain, but Eve states "You will be." Abby falls back asleep, quickly and when she wakes up, Eve tells her that she's been in bed for three days.

Ethan soon becomes almost deathly ill, and Abby discovers that Eve is poisoning him, and that this has occurred to all the previous foster children who died in her care. Abby makes an attempt to escape, but Eve catches her and locks her in the attic. Their parents' friend, Ben Koch (Jason London), comes over to the house to take the kids to Six Flags, but Raymond tells him that Eve took them to an art gallery. After a walk through the house Ben finds it very odd. Abby escapes through a window, then Eve comes after her. During this time the phone rings and Eve and Abby both race to answer it. Eve gets to it first, but the person on the other line hangs up. It is revealed that it was Ben, seeing if they really were gone.

After Abby tries to get away in the car again, she is stopped by Raymond, who Abby knocks out with a wrench. Ben arrives and enters the house, but is ambushed by Eve and drugged. Eve continues to chase Abby before luring her out of hiding via feigning talking to Ethan and catching her. She holds Abby over the railing, but Abby fights back and kicks Eve down the stairs. Eve takes a blow to the head at the bottom, appearing to be dead. Abby races to find Ethan, who she finds in a bathtub almost drowned to death. Abby pulls him out and Eve is standing behind her with a cleaver. She knocks Abby to the ground as Ben enters, and raises the cleaver. A shot is fired and Eve is killed, but it was not Ben who fired. It is revealed that Raymond fired the gun that killed his wife, having snapped out of his blind obedience caused by love. Raymond is arrested, and Abby and Ethan are taken to the hospital. The two presumably end up with Ben.

The Book of Dreams (Vance novel)

Kirth Gersen learns that his enemy Howard Alan Treesong, already "Lord of the Overmen" (i.e., head of the underworld across all of humanity's planets), had almost engineered his appointment as Chief of the Interworld Police Coordinating Commission, the sole interstellar police organization. Gersen ponders what Treesong could be working on that could top that.

Gersen's extensive business empire includes ''Cosmopolis'' magazine, often masquerading as a journalist, "Henry Lucas". Gersen examines old ''Cosmopolis'' files for anything about Treesong. He discovers a photograph, apparently of a formal dinner, bearing the words "H A Treesong is here", with no other information. He launches ''Extant'', a livelier sister magazine to ''Cosmopolis'', and publishes the picture in the free inaugural issue, offering large cash prizes for the identification of anyone in the photograph.

An attractive young woman, Alice Wroke, seeks temporary employment processing contest entries. Gersen confirms she is working for Treesong. Eventually, all of the subjects are identified, except for one man who goes by a variety of names. Gersen tells Alice that the contest was intended to identify Treesong, and that the magazine wants to interview him.

Gersen suspects the photograph depicts most of the highest-ranking Fellows of the powerful Institute, seven members of the governing "Dexad" and three Fellows of rank 99. All but one were fatally poisoned at the banquet. The survivor must be Treesong. Having fraudulently acquired the rank of 99, he plans to become the Institute's leader, the Triune. Three of the Dexad were not present. One had died; the banquet was to choose his successor from the 99s. Another had broken with the Institute and become a hermit. The last was Alice's father; Treesong blackmailed Alice into spying for him by threatening her father (whom he had already murdered).

Gersen saves the hermit from assassination, in the process shooting Treesong in the leg. The new Triune cancels Treesong's spurious rank, foiling another plan to acquire a position of immense power.

Treesong's father enters the contest, identifying him as Howard Hardoah. His letter mentions a school reunion, to which Howard has been invited. Treesong himself calls ''Extant'', but is too late to claim a prize. "Lucas" offers to publish his memoirs, but he says he has an urgent rendezvous on a distant planet. Gersen suspects that he will attend the reunion.

Gersen visits and interviews the elder Hardoah. He also meets Howard's older brother Ledesmus, who hid Howard's prized "Book of Dreams," an exercise book in which he wrote his childhood fantasies. Howard assaulted his only childhood friend, Nymphotis Cleadhoe, when he thought Nymphotis had taken it. Ledesmus finds the book and sells it to Gersen.

At the reunion, Treesong, assisted by his underlings, imposes imaginative (though non-lethal) humiliations on his childhood tormenters. Gersen, disguised as a musician, shoots and wounds Treesong before fleeing.

Gersen believes the Book could lure Treesong out of hiding. Nymphotis's parents, Otho and Tuty, know Treesong killed their only child and are willing to help. Gersen has ''Cosmopolis'' publish a sensationalized report of Treesong's exploits at the reunion and a letter purportedly from Tuty, in which she calls Howard their son's friend and casually mentions an exercise book she still has. Treesong takes the bait.

The Cleadhoes lure Treesong to their isolated jungle outpost on another world, but leave Gersen (and his lover Alice) behind. Gersen and Alice follow. They find that Otho has disposed of Treesong's henchmen, knocked him out and marmelized (converted to a stony substance) his legs. Immobilized, Treesong is seated in an indoor garden facing the marmelized statue of Nymphotis. He mourns his narrow failure to make himself the first Emperor of the Gaean Worlds and asks to be left alone. He then manages to topple himself over face down so that he drowns. Gersen tells Alice that he does not know what he will do now that he has been deserted by his enemies.

Prison (1987 film)

In 1964, inmate Charlie Forsythe of Creedmore Prison was executed via electric chair for a murder he did not commit.

When Creedmore Prison is reopened after thirty years, Charlie Forsythe returns from the afterlife to exact revenge on Ethan Sharpe (Lane Smith) – the officer who stood by as Forsythe was executed.

Inmate Burke (Viggo Mortensen) and all other inmates soon realize that they will all be slaughtered unless Forsythe is allowed to repay his long-standing debt.

Nyarlathotep (short story)

The story is written in first person and begins by describing a strange and inexplicable sense of foreboding experienced by humanity in general, in anticipation of a great unknown evil.

The story proceeds to describe the appearance in Egypt of Nyarlathotep, "of the old native blood" and resembling a Pharaoh, who claims to have "risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries," and to be receiving messages from other worlds. Coming to the West, he appears to have a profound command of the sciences, constructs marvelous and unfathomable devices, and gains great fame as he travels from city to city demonstrating his inventions and powers. Wherever Nyarlathotep goes, the inhabitants' sleep is plagued by vivid nightmares.

The story describes Nyarlathotep's arrival in the narrator's city, and the narrator's attendance at one of Nyarlathotep's demonstrations, in which he defiantly dismisses Nyarlathotep's displays of power as mere tricks. The party of observers is driven out of the hall by Nyarlathotep, and hysterically insists to one another that they are not afraid, and that the city around them is unchanged and alive, even as the electric street lights begin to fail. Everyone falls into a trancelike state and wanders off, dividing into at least three columnal groups: the first of these disappears around a corner, from which there is then heard an echoing moan; another descends into a subway station with the sound of mad laughter; the third group, which contains the narrator, travels outward from the city toward the country. The narrator's party marches through unseasonable snows into a dark rift, with the narrator the last to enter.

The story ends by describing a series of horrific, surreal vistas experienced by the narrator, in which chaos and insanity pervade an ancient, dying universe ruled by mindless, inhuman gods, whose messenger and "soul" is Nyarlathotep.

Honest (film)

The plot follows the antics of three gun-toting, streetwise, saucy sisters in Swinging London in the late 1960s. The film is most notable for the topless scenes by the Appleton sisters. Blatt and the Appletons also contributed to three songs on the film's soundtrack.

Divine Hammer

The book begins with Nusendaran (Andras's master), and Andras going into a village to sacrifice a black sheep. However, the Divine Hammer ambush them, and they manage to kill Nusendaran, and are aiming for him next. Suddenly, Andras is teleported away by Fistandantilus. They watch Nusendaran burnt at the stake, so Andras desires revenge against the Kingpriest and his forces. Just then, Fistandantilus offers Andras a choice to become his student. He agrees.

Meanwhile, Cathan and the Divine Hammer are eradicating a temple to Chemosh hidden in an abandoned lighthouse. They get onto little longboats, and quickly arrive at the lighthouse. They manage to kill the guards, and work their way down to the main worship hall. The Deathmaster, head priest, aims for Cathan with foul magic, however, Damid, a friend of Cathan's, pushes Cathan away and dies instead. Tithian manages to kill the Deathmaster by throwing his sword at him. After the battle, they receive orders to return to Istar. Cathan also promises to knight Tithian. After returning to Istar, Cathan learns he is to be the escort for the new envoy from the Order of High Sorcery, Leciane, since the previous one died. On the way to the Tower of High Sorcery in Istar to bring her to the palace, the magical olive trees guarding the entrance manage to "persuade" Cathan off the path, causing him to lose his memories of that day. Fortunately, Leciane rescues him, and then he takes her to her quarters in the palace. Later, they head for a tournament held by Cathan's sister. On the way, Leciane is told by the head mage, Vincil, to charm Cathan, however she refuses and lies.

Andras is taken to a ruined building a distance away from Istar, which is where he spends his life until one day, when he knows he's ready to attack the Kingpriest. He manages to summon many quasits (abyssal imps), and sends them to attack the Divine Hammer during the tournament. The Divine Hammer are very weak from the tournament, so many die very quickly, including the Grand Marshal. The Kingpriest attempts to banish the quasito, however a spell of Andras's prevents the godly magic from working. Leciane manages to persuade the Kingpriest to let her try, and she succeeds. They go after Andras, and manage to find many quasito around a ruined building. They deduce that their attacker must live there, so they storm the building. Andras is captured, and to be burnt at the stake. However, just before he is burnt, the Conclave rescues him so that they can levy their punishment on him first. Ironically, Fistandantilus steals Andras away from the Conclave. Andras becomes a fetch with the aid of Fistandantilus, and he takes on the form of the Patriarch of Seldjuk. Leciane manages to persuade the Kingpriest and the head of the Conclave to have a moot, however, Andras, as the Patriarch of Seldjuk, stabs the Kingpriest. The Kingpriest's guards think the Patriarch was mind controlled by the wizards, and so they begin to fight. The wizards quickly realize they can't hold out, so begin to attempt to teleport away. They arrive back in the tower, and find out that Vincil has an axe embedded in his back, and is dying. Since Vincil was Leciane's lover, she kisses him, then he dies. The Kingpriest makes Cathan the new Grand Marshal.

Faced with the prospect of war with the Kingpriest, the wizards knew that they would lose. Therefore, they begin to move all magical artifacts and books, to Wayreth, since the populace isn't ready for artifacts of mass destruction. They also disenchanted those that couldn't be moved. Since Fistandantilus is a renegade, he decides to aid the Kingpriest, sending him some magical seeds that can clear a path through the groves that protect the towers. The Kingpriest distributes the seeds to all of his allies attacking the towers. In Daltigoth, the general decides to attack early. Since the tower wasn't emptied, the Order of High Sorcery decides to destroy the tower, which levels the city. The Kingpriest receives word of this, however doesn't tell any of his other allies attacking the towers, believing it is an attempt by "forces of evil" to sway his holy crusade. Leciane comes to warn Cathan, who is going to attack the tower in Losarcum with the rest of the Divine Hammer. Unfortunately, she is interrupted before she manages to tell Cathan everything. When Cathan and the Divine Hammer attack the tower, Cathan notices that there seems to be a surge of magic in the apex, and quickly realizes the tower will explode. He and Tithian attempt to escape, but are confused by the twisting passages. Leciane finds them and teleports them away, but she takes a fatal wound in the process. Cathan becomes unconscious during the spell, and wakes up days later. By then, Leciane is already dead. Cathan parts with Tithian when they reach Istar, and Cathan decides that what the Kingpriest is doing is evil. He embarrasses the Kingpriest in front of all the courtiers, then leaves Istar. He is never seen again.

Andras begins to feel guilty about what he has done, and wishes to undo it. However, Fistandantilus decides that payment is due then, so takes over Andras's mind. Andras, under Fistandantilus's spell, curses the tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas, so that no one will be allowed into the tower until the master of the past and present claims the tower. Fistandantilus threatens the Kingpriest's, by becoming his enemy if he doesn't let Fistandantilus join the Kingpriest's court. The Kingpriest is forced to agree.

The Dargonesti

The book begins with a Qualinesti princess, Vixa, and some forces sent on the Evenstar to rescue an elven ambassador escaping from the advancing Ergothian army. A white wall of fog appears, and tows their ship away for an entire night. The fog clears to reveal a sandy island, which they learn is nine hundred leagues away from their previous location. The island is also unlisted on any maps. They explore the island, and see figures that wear green enamel armor and braided eelweed, who attempt to kidnap one of the exploration party. The exploration party attacks the figures, at which point the figures run away. They follow them into a cave, which collapses as soon as they are in it. While in the cave, they realize they landed on a kraken, and went into its blowhole. They cause the kraken so much pain that it to releases them while underwater. Unable to swim, they begin to drown.

Luckily they are rescued by Dargonesti elves, known as the green enameled figures. The four that survived are taken to a hollow volcano on the outskirts of Urione, a Dargonesti city, which is full of air and houses other captives. They meet Garnath and others there, and learn that the Dargonesti forces them to build walls to help defend against the chilkit, gigantic lobsters that are the enemies of the Dargonesti. Vixa meets Coryphene, as well as the Queen of the Dargonesti in Urione, Uriona. Vixa is told by Coryphene never to look at the queen, and to be obedient. She learns that Uriona wants to become rule of the Silvanesti, and appears mad. She chafes at being obedient, so she tries to catch a glimpse of Uriona. She sees Uriona reflected by the floor, and then Uriona's green eyes flash, causing her to become unconscious. As a punishment for being disobedient, she is sent to the volcano. While building a wall, the foursome are attacked by the chilkit. They are forced to fight with nothing but their bare hands, and fortunately they survive. However, many others didn't. After working for a while, one morning the Dargonesti don't arrive to escort them to work, and they can soon hear there is fighting going on outside. The dwarves had stored many jars of gnomefire, otherwise known as Greek fire, which was made from the minerals inside the volcano. Chilkit begin to enter the volcano, and the water level also begins to rise. The captives use the gnomefire on the chilkit. However, one manages to corner Vixa, but she is luckily saved by Garnath. Unfortunately, Garnath is killed while saving her. The water level is now very high, and the gnomefire used up the remaining oxygen in the volcano, so the captives are forced to swim out of the volcano, but they have no air shells to breathe through, and Vixa becomes unconscious after swimming outside.

She is rescued by Naxos, who takes her to the surface. However, they cannot get back to Urione, because they have no air shells, and Vixa can't hold her breath for that long. Naxos decides to make her one of the sea brothers, allowing her to shape change into a dolphin at will. They swim back to Urione, however she conceals her ability so that Naxos won't get into trouble. She meets up with the rest of the captives in a barracks where they are held. Gundabyr agrees to show the Dargonesti how to use gnomefire so that they can destroy the chilkit, in exchange for freedom. However, Uriona secretly tells Coryphene that the captives must not be allowed to live. Since the captives are now heroes for saving the city from the chilkit, captives are showered with gifts, and can leave the barracks. However, none come back. Vixa soon realizes that the soldiers under Coryphene's orders are killing captives, so she decides to escape. Gundabyr is held prisoner in a guard room, so Vixa rescues him, then Vixa as a dolphin carries Gundabyr on her back, heading for Silvanesti. They attempt to warn the Silvanesti of an attack, but are considered mad and are held captive in an outlying fort. When the Dargonesti do come to attack the fort, the general sets them free to help fight. However, the Dargonesti brought a kraken, which quickly levels the fort. The two manage to escape and reach Silvanost to warn the Speaker of the Stars, Elendar.

With the help of Vixa and Gundabyr, the Silvanesti manage to defeat the Dargonesti, and hold Uriona, Coryphene and other Dargonesti elves captive. Elendar decides to marry Uriona, however, their sons will not be in line for the throne. Vixa tells Coryphene that Uriona is going to marry Elendar, and so Coryphene commits suicide, because he loved Uriona passionately, so followed all of her wishes and commands. However, Uriona always thought of him as a tool to help her achieve her dreams. Vixa and Gundabyr are given a griffin to ride to Thorbardin, where she drops Gundabyr off. Then, she rides back to Qualinesti, and is joyfully received by her parents, who thought her dead. They hold a feast in her honor, and her story is spread throughout the realm. Since their daughter can carry responsibility now, she is given command of the Wildrunners. She begins to feel a calling to return to the sea, so days later she abandons her post, writes a letter to her parents saying good bye, and goes to live underwater as Naxos's wife.

Robotech: The Movie

In the year 1999, the alien spacecraft SDF-1 crashed on Earth, followed ten years later by the alien Zentraedi, seeking to reclaim the vessel for their rulers, the Robotech Masters. The First Robotech War erupted over the vessel, ending with victory for humankind, at the cost of the SDF-1 itself. Now, in 2027, the Robotech Masters themselves arrive in Earth's Solar System, aiming to recover the ship's still-functional mother computer, being studied at Earth's Robotech Research Center in Japan. The Masters launch a covert attack on a small human settlement, killing Colonel B.D. Andrews of the Army of the Southern Cross and secretly replacing him with a clone. Following a disastrous attack by the ASC on the Masters’ flagship, the Andrews clone proposes that the military take charge of use the mother computer to formulate a defense against the Masters. When his proposal is approved, he secretly begins beaming the contents of the computer's database to the Masters, after which they plan to destroy the Earth.

Suspicious over the military's decision to hide the Masters’ existence from the populous, soldier Todd Harris steals the "MODAT 5" - a mobile terminal remotely connected to the mother computer in the form of a motorcycle - and seeks help from his friend Mark Landry, telling him to contact “Eve”. Troops under the Andrews clone's command accost the pair, and Todd dies in an escape attempt before he can fully explain everything to Mark. Mark manages to escapes with the MODAT 5, but unaware of its true significance, winds up merely using it as a prop in an amateur movie being shot by Kelly, a friend of his girlfriend, aspiring dancer Becky Michaels.

Seeing a music video from popular idol Eve, Mark presumes that she was who Todd wanted to contact and telephones her talk show to tell her about the MODAT. The call is traced by Andrews's men, leading to a freeway chase during which the bike automatically reconfigures into a humanoid mecha form to fend off Mark's attackers. Mark proceeds to sneak into the TV studio from which Eve's show is broadcast and discovers that the singer is not a real person at all, but a holographic projection. Eve explains that she is the artificial intelligence of the SDF-1's computer, and informs Mark of the Masters' plan. Eve leads Mark to the Robotech Research Center, where Mark engages and defeats “Andrews” in a mecha battle, but accidentally lets slip the existence of Kelly's film footage of the MODAT. Escaping, Mark attempts to warn Becky, but his recent distractedness has alienated her, and it is not until he rescues her from being sexually assaulted by an unscrupulous dance show director that the pair reconcile.

ASC forces under the command of Rolf Emerson stage another attack on the Masters’ fleet, and again meet with failure thanks to Andrews using the mother computer to feed them bad data and control their movements. When a concerned technician reports Andrews's suspicious actions to Professor Embry, head of the Ministry of Computer Sciences, the computer is ordered to be shut down. Andrews stages a coup and takes control of the Japanese government, ordering the computer reactivated and the transmission of its database resumed. Amid the chaos of the coup, Kelly is killed by Andrews's men and her film of the MODAT is stolen. Realizing the threat Andrews poses, Embry prepares to depart for Alaska Base, location of a secondary terminal that will allow him to take control of the computer, but is delayed by waiting for his daughter Stacy – Kelly's roommate – to join him.

The Masters’ flagship descends to Earth and they deliver an ultimatum to the ASC, but in doing so, reveal the link between the computer and their vessel. Exploiting the link to discern a weak spot in the Masters’ defenses, the ASC is able to cripple their flagship, and when it crashes, the rest of the fleet retreats. Simultaneously, Mark, seeking revenge, attacks the research center to flush out Andrews. Defeated and left for dead by Andrews, who departs to intercept Embry, Mark is contacted through the wrecked MODAT by Eve, who directs him to commandeer a prototype space fighter that carries him to the airport just in time to save Embry and Stacy from Andrews's attack. Transforming the space fighter to robot mode, Mark has one final battle with Andrews that ends with him killing the clone and triumphantly reuniting with Becky.

Deep Fear

The game takes place 300 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a naval fueling and research facility known as "The Big Table" (SSB-01). Players assume the role of John Mayor, an ex-Navy SEAL who has joined forces with a civilian rescue organisation called ''Emergency Rescue Services'' (ERS). The ERS was one of many civilian corporations who were offered space at The Big Table in order to raise funds after the US Navy cut the facility's budget.

A small capsule from space has landed near The Big Table. It contains a chimpanzee who was launched into space forty years before the start of the game, as part of an experiment about the effects of cosmic radiation on a living creature. The cosmic radiation caused the chimp to undergo a mutation whereby its metabolism slowed and it went into hibernation. Commander Clancy assigns Gena Weisburg to unravel the mystery of the chimp so the same effect may be used to allow humans to travel into deep space.

The ''Sea Fox'', a small but fast nuclear submarine, has been dispatched to refuel at The Big Table and investigate the capsule. The Sea Fox crashes into the base at a part called the ''Navy Area'', The Big Table's top secret research facility. Ignoring the high security level of the Navy Area, the base commander calls in a SEAL team as a primary rescue force, and also sends the ERS to extract an important doctor.

Hostile mutants in The Big Table are troublesome: human beings (both living and undead) are being transformed into grotesque creatures that kill. The hostile mutants are weakened by high levels of oxygen and so they try to destroy The Big Table's oxygen generators.

The mutation creating the hostile mutants is the result of the effect of cosmic radiation on common bacteria. John Mayor, who is afflicted with a cold, is unaffected by the infectious mutation and must try to rescue The Big Table's occupants and escape.

They Thirst

The prologue starts in Hungary as young Andy is waiting for his father to come home after a hunting trip. His father comes in late but is different. Andy comes to his father when told to and finds he is pale and cold. Andy's mother, suspecting that he is a creature he was hunting for, shoots him. His face is blown apart but continues to come after the two. They then run away into the cold blizzard. His father shouts "I'LL FIND YOU" as they run away. Andy and his mother finally go to a house away from their town.

Later, Andy, now a Los Angeles detective, is trying find the Roach, who rapes, murders, and then puts cockroaches in the mouth of his victims. Andy's work leaves him stressed from the relentless hours he must put in on the case. Meanwhile, an albino sociopath killer is making his way to Los Angeles by the calls of someone and visions. At a bar in Texas he kills everyone with a Mauser. Eventually he makes his way to Los Angeles. Gayle Clark is a reporter and while going to work with her boyfriend they find the Hollywood Cemetery is ransacked. The people who did this left the bodies in a road and stole the coffins. Andy is told of this and goes to the watchman to tell him what to do if it happens again; to just stay in the house and close the blinds. At the same time Rico, a Chicano gangster, finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. The girl runs away after Rico inquires if the child is his. The girl continues on the lam while Rico tries to find her. Eventually she is overtaken by the vampires on a dark street. That same night Wes Richer is having a large party after his successful comedy show. His wife, who is a medium, attempts, at the urging of a non-believer, to have a vision using a Ouija board. She is told by a spirit that there's evil and when she asks "what is this evil," it replies, "THEY THIRST"

Before dawn the Prince Vampire is in Disneyland and sees the Headmaster. The Headmaster tells him that endless possibilities will be possible once he conquers Los Angeles. When seen after talking to him by a watchman he turns into a large bat and flies away.

The River Rat

Jonsy is a teenager who meets her father Billy, who has just been released from prison, for the first time. The two slowly forge a relationship as they rebuild a boat named ''The River Rat''. The father cannot escape his criminal past, being blackmailed by the prison psychiatrist Doc Cole, who believes he knows the location of a large amount of cash stolen before imprisonment.

Father and daughter ride ''The River Rat'' on a picturesque trip down the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to find the money and elude the prison doctor. Along the way, they learn about each other and grow closer.

Thunderball (film)

SPECTRE operative Emilio Largo devises a plan to hold NATO to ransom by hijacking two atomic bombs from a Royal Air Force (RAF) Avro Vulcan strategic jet bomber during a training exercise. To facilitate Largo's plans, SPECTRE operative Count Lippe recruits Angelo Palazzi to oversee the theft of the bombs. With help from SPECTRE agent Fiona Volpe, Lippe has Palazzi surgically alter his face to match that of French Air Force pilot François Derval, who is assisting in the exercise. Volpe and Palazzi murder the real Derval, while they are staying at the Shrublands health resort, only for the latter to demand more money. Volpe acquiesces, merely to have him continue with their operation. Following the plan, Palazzi successfully hijacks the bomber, killing its crew, and lands it in shallow waters within the Bahamas. While the bombs are recovered by his men, Largo murders Palazzi for reneging on his original deal with SPECTRE.

British secret agent James Bond, recuperating at Shrublands after a previous assignment, notices Lippe's presence and keeps him under observation, discovering Derval's body. Upon being urgently recalled to London, Bond finds himself targeted by Lippe for trying to interfere. Before he can defend himself, Volpe kills Lippe for jeopardizing Largo's scheme. Once back in London, Bond learns that all 00 agents are being put on high alert following the theft of the bombs, after being informed a major city in the United States or the United Kingdom will be destroyed unless £100 million is paid to SPECTRE within seven days. While in talks with M on his assignment, Bond requests he be assigned to Nassau, Bahamas, to contact Derval's sister Domino, after recognising Derval from the photo given to the agents in their main briefing as the body he found at the resort.

Bond meets with Domino, who he learns is the mistress of Largo when he visits a local casino. Both men recognise each other as adversaries and engage in a tense cat-and-mouse game while still pretending ignorance of each other's true nature. Following their initial meeting, Bond meets with his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, fellow agent Paula Caplan, and MI6 quartermaster Q, to receive equipment to help with finding the bombs, including an underwater infrared camera and miniature underwater breathing apparatus. Investigating Largo's ship, ''Disco Volante'', he notices an underwater hatch beneath her that intrigues him. The next day, he visits Largo at his estate during the night, only to find that Paula had been abducted and committed suicide before she could talk. Forced to escape, Bond evades Largo's men during a Junkanoo celebration. Volpe catches up to Bond, but is accidentally shot by a henchman aiming for Bond.

Suspecting the bombs were brought to the area, Bond and Leiter search for the Vulcan and find it camouflaged underwater, along with the body of Palazzi. Upon returning to the island, Bond reveals to Domino that her brother was killed by Largo and gets her to help him search ''Disco Volante''. However, Largo catches her in the act and has her imprisoned. Meanwhile, Bond replaces one of Largo's men as SPECTRE prepares to move the bombs, and manages to learn where one of them is being moved to before being discovered and left behind. Reuniting with Leiter, the pair gets the U.S. Coast Guard to intercept ''Disco Volante'' crew and recover one of the bombs in an underwater battle. Bond pursues Largo and grabs hold of ''Disco Volante'' as she sheds the rear half to become a hydrofoil to escape. Bond gets on deck and sends the ''Disco Volante'' out of control whilst he defeats Largo's men and fights Largo. Largo gets the upper hand and is about to shoot Bond when Domino kills Largo in revenge after his hired nuclear physicist frees her. The trio quickly flees ''Disco Volante'' just barely before her destruction, whereupon Bond and Domino are retrieved by a plane with the Fulton system.

Little Big Girl

At his farm, Cletus is milking his cow when he accidentally kicks over a lantern, prompting a series of Rube Goldberg-esque events that leads to a chicken starting a fire. Cletus's cow succeeds in extinguishing the fire, but Cletus drops his smoking pipe, leading to a wildfire around Springfield. The townspeople try to extinguish it, to no avail. At Springfield Elementary, Principal Skinner asks Groundskeeper Willie to get the fire extinguisher, but all of them have been stolen by Bart to propel his wagon. As Bart rockets around town, the foam released from the extinguishers puts out the wildfire. Bart is cheered as a hero by everyone and rewarded with a driver's license by Mayor Quimby.

Bart starts using Homer's car for his own pleasure, but is eventually tabbed for family errands, mostly chauffeuring Homer. After many inappropriate requests, Bart flees to North Haverbrook, where he meets a 15-year-old girl named Darcy, who believes Bart is much older. They begin a romantic relationship and Darcy soon proposes marriage. At the court house, Bart reveals his age, whereupon Darcy reveals that she is pregnant, much to Bart's depression. Darcy admits that Bart is not the father as they have not consummated the relationship - the real father is a Norwegian exchange student, and she wants to get married because her parents would be upset about her extramarital pregnancy. Bart agrees to marry Darcy, and they drive to Utah, where marriage restrictions are looser and they can start a new life together.

Eventually, Homer, Marge and Darcy's parents catch up with them to stop the wedding, where Darcy's father tries to reason with Bart as he believes that Bart took advantage of a girl much older than him and got her pregnant. Darcy confesses to her parents that Bart is not the father, and that she did not want her parents to be disappointed by her pregnancy. Darcy's mother, thrilled, confesses that she is pregnant too, and the family agrees to pass the two babies off as twins. Darcy and Bart end their relationship, while Bart assures her they will meet again, to which she agrees. Later, Bart admits to Homer that he looked forward to being a father, and Homer cheers him up by going with him on a ride around town at night.

When Lisa struggles to find excitement and intrigue in her family heritage for a school presentation, she decides to take creative license. Inspired by Bart's "Indian butter trick" and the well-known kitchen curtains, with their stalks-of-corn pattern, Lisa claims to be Native American, from the "Hitachi" tribe, a name Lisa selects based on the Hitachi brand of the family's microwave oven. The embellishment turns into a web of lies when Lisa is chosen to represent the school and her "people" at City Hall, then as a keynote speaker for the National Native American Tribal Council. She eventually admits she lied about her heritage, but is spared from prosecution when the other speakers admit they are not true Native Americans. Homer compares his daughter to CBS News in a reference to the 2004 Killian documents controversy. As they leave, Homer mentions that his great-great-grandmother actually was a Native American, much to Lisa's chagrin.

Calla Lily (TV series)

Sharlene San Pedro (from ''Mga Anghel na Walang Langit'') starred in this teleserye, which premiered on May 29, 2006 1 year later. She reunited once again with her highly successful Anghel na Walang Langit family composed of directors Maryo J. delos Reyes, Lino Cayetano, writers Agnes Gagilonia-Uligan, Aloy Adlawan and Michiko Yamamoto, as well as versatile actor Johnny Delgado.

In Calla Lily, Sharlene played dual roles, twin sisters Calla and Lily who grow up in a small fishing village in Batangas. Calla and Lily are polar opposites: Calla is outspoken and naughty while Lily is very timid and shy. Both are doted upon by their father, Dodie (Gerald Madrid), who takes care of them while their mother, Sari (Ana Roces), works in Taiwan as an overseas Filipino worker, or an OFW. However, Sari meets Ramil (Yul Servo) a Filipino businessman abroad and has an affair with him. With her conscience eating her up, she returns home to her family, but her secret becomes exposed when Ramil follows her and tries to win her back. To complicate matters, Sari's father Edong (Johnny Delgado) and mother Liza (Evangeline Pascual) prefer Ramil over her husband. Soon Dodie and Sari end up fighting and even their kids take sides. One terrible night, a drunken Dodie takes Edong's boat to sea with Lily following him. The same time a storm hits the village. This period is when the story of Calla Lily unfolded.

Aside from Ana Roces, Gerald Madrid, Evangeline Pascual, Yul Servo and Johnny Delgado, strong performances came from Baron Geisler, Rodjun Cruz, Erich Gonzales, Luz Valdez, Lou Veloso, Lauren Novero, Myla Boyd, Scarlet, Angel Sy, Pewee O'Hara, Hazel Espinosa, and Raquel Montessa. Soliman Cruz, Cloyd Robinson, Niña Manalo, Paolo Ramirez, and Jam Melendez completed the powerhouse cast of Calla Lily.

The Word (novel)

The plot of the novel is based around the discovery within Roman ruins of a new gospel written by Jesus' younger brother, James in the first century. In the gospel, many facts of Jesus' life, including the years not mentioned in the Bible, are revealed not to be as factual as they were once thought to be. Steven Randall, a divorced public relations executive running his own company in New York City, is the man hired by New Testament International, an alliance of American and European Bible publishers, to give publicity to James' Gospel as published by them. The project has been top-secret for six years, and now it is about to be unveiled to a world long in need of Christian revival. However, as Steven gets more involved in the project he runs into several questionable circumstances, as radical clerics centered in Central Europe oppose the publication of the document, since it would give ammunition for the conservative churches to keep the flow of worship from the top to the bottom, instead of bringing the faith to the masses. A struggle for control of the World Council of Churches, the suspicious absence in the project of archeologist Prof. Augusto Monti, the original discoverer – and whose daughter Angela is a potential love interest for Steve –, and the potential notion that the newly discovered gospel itself is a forgery made in the 20th century instead of a legitimate historical document, all are guaranteed to make Steve question the worth of the new job he is undertaking, and the newly re-found faith in God he acquired along with it.

### Locales

New York City, Steve's place of work and regular abode. Oak City, Wisconsin, Steve's hometown (fictional; may be based on Oak Creek and/or Pleasant Prairie). London, England, where Steve meets Dr. Bernard Jeffries and Dr. Florian Knight Amsterdam, Netherlands, headquarters of the New Testament International project, and of Maertin de Vroome's Westerkerk. Paris, France, home of Henri Aubert's lab at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique Mainz, Germany home of Karl Hennig's printing press Simonopetra Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece Rome, Italy, base of the Monti family, and its former Roman seaport Ostia Antica, place of the discovery of the Gospel According to James *Milan, Italy, where Steve first meets Angela

The Trials of Rosie O'Neill

Each episode opens with Rosie talking with her therapist (Rosenzweig), whose face was never seen on camera. Rosie had been at the receiving end of an unwanted divorce, after her attorney husband had an affair. The advertisement for the series which appeared in ''TV Guide'' the night the series debuted told the story as follows: "I'm 43 and divorced. He got our law practice, the Mercedes, and the dog. It's only fair that I should be angry. I really liked that dog."

Terminal Entry

The film begins with Lady Electric and Bob. After being chased down another corridor and into an elevator where they both fall to their deaths Bob snaps out of his daydream at the last second. When he comes to, he finds his friends have lost the game in the same fashion. Later, when selecting another game to play on the "Outlaw BBS", they chose one called "Terminal Entry", however, this one is password protected. Thinking that the game was set up by members at MIT, Tom decides that he will crack the password and play it during a vacation planned up in the mountains for the weekend.

Colonel Styles and Captain Jackson inform General Stewart of the terrorist situation and request more men to help protect the border over a video conference. But the general is not convinced, so he decides to fly out and take command personally. The terrorist network commander watches a news cast on the television where General Stewart being interviewed by Dominique, the reporter who is also the love interest of Captain Jackson, and decides to place a hit on the general. But the plan was circumvented by Captain Jackson while escorting the general to his hotel.

Back at the dorm room, thinking they have been beaten again, the Caltech students just about give up on their game "Dr. Fly", when Gwen, a friend of Chris who was invited to the weekend retreat, beats the game with a single command. Meanwhile, the terrorist commander is reminded by his leader over another video conference the stakes of their operation and is given an initiation time frame for their coordinated attack. The Army unit makes progress in finding the communication network for the terrorist by locating the bulletin board system after searching through known listings. When they find the terrorist network they pose as Hassan, the terrorist they killed earlier, but Dan Jackson was distraught about being given the order to have his girlfriend Dominique assassinated.

During the weekend getaway, the teenage "hackers" fail to gain access to "Terminal Entry" through brute force password cracking, however when Bob drops one of his Twinkies on the keyboard, he enters the numbers "5.9.125.35 1/5.25.35" which was the same numbers as the measurements Lady Electric from the beginning of the movie had said to him. Upon gaining access, the group find a complex computer program which they think is a game.

The Army anti-terrorism unit tracks down the position of the terrorist command post, and initiate an assault on the location which is a warehouse in the middle of the desert. Before the commander escapes, he assigns the six students to take over command. When the students start playing the game, the commands they issue in play erupt in real life bombings, assassinations, and acts of terrorism. Some of which include a Russian peace delegate, an oil refinery in Los Angeles, airplanes flying in from Lisbon, and themselves.

Bob, not knowing the full impact of their influence, put the six of them on the hit list. Operator 23 was already dispatched before they could countermand the assignment. Coincidentally their car wouldn't start, so Bob leads the group back into the house to arm themselves. When night fell, a large group of terrorists descended upon the house. However, the anti-terrorist unit was one step ahead of the terrorists, and rescued the kids from their impending doom, then proceeded to eradicate the terrorist threat. During the fighting, Bob coaxed by his imagination, the voice in his head of Lady Electric, told him to go back inside to put his initials into the computer as the winner. At the end, even with the terrorists defeated, and the kids safe, Captain Jackson and Colonel Styles know the war is not over.

The Midnight Snack

The cartoon takes place in a kitchen at midnight. Jerry pokes his head out of the refrigerator door and steals some cheese, unaware that Tom is watching him. Tom weighs the mouse down enough such that he can no longer see in front of him. After Jerry falls off from a rolling pin, Tom emerges from his hiding place with a smug face.

Jerry "salutes" the cat and returns the slice of cheese to the refrigerator. He then proceeds to steal ''just'' a tiny bit of cheese, but Tom stomps on his tail with one of his hind paws and replaces the cheese. However, the cat soon realizes that he has the free run of the refrigerator, so he places an iron on top of Jerry's tail and begins eating. Jerry frees himself, but is soon caught by Tom and returns himself to the iron.

Tom then presents Jerry with the wedge of cheese, but the iron attached to Jerry's tail prevents him from reaching the cheese. Tom then proceeds to allow Jerry to lick some cream off a few donuts, and then the mouse gets sprayed with the rest of it, plus a cherry for good measure. Tom then smells the cheese, but soon sees that it is the wedge of cheese, much to his nose's displeasure, and tosses it away. Unfortunately, the cheese smashes some crockery and wakes up Tom's owner Mammy Two Shoes, who goes downstairs. Tom quickly shoves Jerry into the refrigerator and hides. Mammy rushes in and opens the fridge, screaming in terror when she spots Jerry. Leaping onto a stool and comically hiking up numerous, patterned layers of underclothes, Mammy calls Tom who emerges and pursues Jerry. In the midst of the chase, Mammy leaves the room.

Tom surprises Jerry behind a trash bin, but Jerry tricks Tom into looking over the bin and jumps on the pedal, sending it to crash into Tom's face. Jerry then jumps into the toaster and Tom starts it. Jerry pops up, his tail is on fire, and cools it in a sink full of water, only to be chased again by Tom. Tom ends up losing his grip and gets his tail caught up in an ironing board, with his body facing the refrigerator. Jerry climbs down the blind, picks up a fork with his tail and stabs Tom with the fork, causing Tom to slide down the board and eventually crash into the fridge just as Jerry had planned.

Mammy re-enters the room on the belief that Tom has caught Jerry and disposed of Jerry. Then she opens the refrigerator door to get Tom a bowl of cream, only to find Tom in the refrigerator, covered in food. Jerry overhears Mammy shouting at Tom and kicking the screeching cat out of the house while munching on his wedge of cheese and feeling very pleased with himself.

Scrapbook (film)

Scrapbook begins with opening credits rolling while a kidnapped woman has a frantic discussion in the dark with an incoherent female voice. As the credits conclude, the door to the van opens and the woman discovers, to her horror, that the incoherent voice belonged to a disemboweled woman. A man reaches in and removes the disemboweled woman.

We then see a flashback about a child named Leonard. He looks in on his sister, who is half-naked and apparently aroused. She notices him, and takes him into her room, where she proceeds to molest him. A young man enters the room, and is disgusted with Leonard. He angrily pulls him downstairs, where he proceeds to rape the boy.

The film then cuts to the present, where Leonard has grown up into a young man and kidnapper of the females from the introduction. Clara is his latest victim. Leonard has her tied to a chair in a large, unkempt trailer home in the middle of nowhere. The walls and furniture are adorned with photos and body parts of his past victims. He reveals his scrapbook to Clara, in which he forced his past victims to document their horrific experiences at his hands. He then tells her that he plans for her to be his "last chapter", before he tries to have the book published, which he believes will lead to fame and fortune. Leonard then drags Clara into a room with the words "I'm winning" scrawled on the wall, presumably in blood. He then violently beats and rapes her, and then urinates on her.

Clara is beaten, raped, and abused in various ways throughout the movie, as she tries to find a way to escape. Finally Clara comes to realize that in order to survive she must manipulate him through what he writes in the scrapbook. Slowly Leonard starts to give her food and clothes. Clara pretends that she wants to make love to Leonard and uses duct tape to tie his arms and legs to the cot. Thereafter, she stabs Leonard on the bottom of his feet with a knife and takes pictures of him in pain. She puts those pictures in the scrapbook and the film ends with her walking away from the house.

A Hero of Our Times

Alberto is an employee who is the Italian average of society of the Fifties. Alberto is a go-getter, attached only to his work, and believes that everyone meets him wants to bring Alberto bad luck. Alberto refuses every contact with other people, but soon finds himself caught in misunderstandings and so the people, to take revenge on him and his meanness, force him to change his identity.

Tony Rome

Tony Rome is an ex-cop turned private investigator who lives on a powerboat in Miami, Florida, called ‘Straight Pass’. This is a reference to the fact that Tony also has a gambling problem. He is asked by his former partner, Ralph Turpin, to take home a young woman who had been left unconscious in a hotel room.

The woman, Diana (''née'' Kosterman) Pines, is the daughter of rich construction magnate Rudolph Kosterman, who subsequently hires Rome to find out why his daughter is acting so irrationally.

After regaining consciousness, Diana discovers that a diamond pin that she had been wearing the night before has gone missing. Diana and her stepmother Rita hire Rome to find the lost pin.

Rome is chloroformed and beaten by a pair of thugs, and Turpin is found murdered in Rome's office. Lt. Dave Santini of the Miami police investigates the crime scene and demands information from Rome, who is an old friend.

Rome gets help from a local tramp, Ann Archer.

An attempt is made on Kosterman's life, and a jeweler is found murdered.

Rome discovers that Diana's has been selling her stepmother's jewels and giving the money to Lorna, her biological mother, but also that the pin (mailed to Rome by Turpin after trying to fence it) was a fake. Tracking down an unknown man with a gimp leg he calls Catleg, Tony determines that Rita was being blackmailed and had previously sold the real jewels to pay her ex-husband's blackmail demands.

The trail leads to Rita's dead ex-husband and Diana's stepfather, Adam Boyd, an abortion doctor stripped of his license, who ordered the killing of Kosteman, believing Diana would then inherit his entire estate (as Boyd had found documents showing Rita's current marriage was void), and that Diana would then provide generously for her mother.

The case solved, Rome invites Ann for a romantic getaway on his boat, but she decides to go back to her husband.

Leroy and the Old Man

LeRoy Chambers is the sole witness to a murder by a local Chicago gang called "The Wolves". To escape police questioning as well as the wrath of the gang who does not want LeRoy to squeal on them, LeRoy is sent by his mother to Pass Christian, Mississippi. It is here that LeRoy is to live with his grandfather. Upon arrival in a New Orleans bus station, LeRoy meets his grandfather for the first time. Living with his grandfather, LeRoy learns how to sleep on a boat, how to catch shrimp and crabs, how to saw lumber, how to buy and sell goods, and even how to drive a truck. LeRoy also learns about the Cajun culture of which is a part of his heritage. However, one thing that LeRoy is not able to learn much about is his father. His father ran away from him and his mother many years ago when LeRoy was in sixth grade. LeRoy's grandfather will not talk about LeRoy's father, stating that he "doesn't have a son".

When the Chicago police came looking for LeRoy in Mississippi to testify as a material witness to the murder he saw, LeRoy has serious reservations. LeRoy understands that he is the only person who saw the Wolves murder an old woman in his housing development. However, LeRoy is scared that if the Wolves see him in court, he may not get out of Chicago alive. LeRoy's grandfather, as well as the local Mississippi sheriff, agree that LeRoy must go to Chicago. However, LeRoy's father (who arranges to surprise LeRoy in a New Orleans restaurant) thinks that LeRoy should steal away to New York City with him. LeRoy, even though he is angered to see his father after so long, is tempted to accompany his dad. Finally, the respect LeRoy has for his grandfather and the new life he has started to build in Pass Christian, Mississippi trumps his father's wishes as well as the fear he has to testify in court. The book ends off with LeRoy boarding an airplane heading towards Chicago.

The Dragon Family

Lung Ying (Ko Chun-hsiung), patriarch of the Lung family and leader of the four triad families have decided to stop dealing in drugs and go straight with legitimate business. While the No. 3 and No. 4 of the four families follow suit, White Wolf (Ku Feng), the No. 2 of the four families, continues his illegal dealings and Lung sends his hitman and adopted son, Allan (Alan Tam), to kill Wolf's underling, Golden Teeth Shing, who is in charge of Wolf's drug business, before sending Allan to Taiwan to hide from the police. When Wolf finds out what happened, he is enraged and calls his second in command, Tsui (Norman Chui). At this time, Kui (Ho Ka-kui), Wolf's underling and the accountant of the four families, pleads with Lung to spare him when HK$5 million was lost, but it turns out Kui was colluding with Tsui. Meanwhile, Lung's second son, Ka-yip (Kent Tong), is in debt to Wolf after losing in his casino so Tsui and Kui lures him to help them ship cocaine since he is in charge of Lung's container terminal.

While the Lung family is sending off the fifth and youngest son, Ka-chung (Max Mok), to study medicine in England, Tsui and Kui set a trap on Ka-yip to give Wolf a reason to capture Ka-yip and lures Lung out to a meeting with the other patriarchs four families at Wolf's wood factory in Cha Kwo Ling. Lung arrives at Wolf's factory with his bodyguard, Po (Kent Cheng), while his brother in law, Sek (Lau Kar-wing) stays in the car. There, Wolf demands Lung to kill Ka-yip on the spot, but stabs himself instead as he believes his son was framed and demands two days to investigate in the matter, but Wolf refuses. Kui stirs up the scene but Lung then slaps and accuses him for the HK$5 million. At this time, Lung's eldest son, Ka-wai (Michael Miu), arrives and impulsively enters the factory followed by Sek, and beats some of Wolf's henchmen before Kui takes a knife and holds Lung in the neck, demanding Ka-yip and Sik to take off their pants. Ka-yip then throws his pants at Kui, who struggles with Lung before stabbing the latter in the chest.

At the hospital, Ka-wai beats up Ka-yip for his wrongdoings but Po and Sek breaks the fight. In his dying breath, Lung tells his sons not to seek revenge and dies right before his wife (Lisa Chiao Chiao), fourth son Ka-wah (Andy Lau) and Ka-wai's wife, (Kara Hui), arrive. Afterwards, Tsui and Kui devises a plan to Wolf to kill the rest of the triad boss of the families so Wolf can be the head of the four families.

At Lung's family, No. 3 and No. 4, along with Sergeant Fung (Stanley Fung), arrive to pay respects before Wolf, Tsui and the rest of his gang arrive and taunt Lung's sons. After Wolf and his gang leaves, the Taoist prayers at the funeral stop their chants before pulling out automatic weapons and massacring the funeral parlour while Wolf's underling, Bill (Shing Fui-On) also enters in the back and shoots at Lung's corpse before Ka-wai tackles him and stabs him in the neck during a struggle. After killing Bill, Ka-wai dies after getting shot by Wolf's other henchmen. Wolf also shoots and kills Lung's third son, Ka-keung (Cheung Kwok-keung) from the second the level before he was betrayed and killed by Tsui. Ka-wai, Ka-yip, Ka-keung, Wolf, Sek, Ka-wai's wife and the triad bosses of the four families were all killed in the massacre, and Ka-wah and his mother were the only ones to escapes but Ka-wah injures his hand and gets shot in his leg and crippled while protecting his mother. Ka-wah and his mother goes into hiding living in a boat.

Po picks Ka-chung from the airport and find out from Sergeant Fung at a roadblock about what happened at the funeral parlour and Po sends Ka-chung to live in a safehouse. The next night, Ka-chung is attacked by Tsui's henchman and he kills a couple of them and when he was struggling with a henchman trying to stab him, Po arrives just in time to rescue him and kills off the rest of the attackers. Po then drives Ka-chung to the pier to send him off to Taiwan before Po is killed by Tsui's henchmen who crash his car and shoot him.

Ka-chung finds Allan in Taiwan and tells him what happened and they return to Hong Kong after Allan bids farewell to his girlfriend. Back Hong Kong, Ka-chung and Allan tail Tsui, who is running for district council, taking photos of him hoping to find an opportunity to kill him, before reuniting with Ka-wah, who is working as a pimp to support his mother. However, Ka-chung gets into an argument with Ka-wah when the latter forbids him to seek revenge against their father's wish and the fact that the former is inexperienced in combat. However, Ka-chung proves his skills in a brief scuffle with Ka-wah, who admonishes Ka-chung about the risk of losing their lives while seeking revenge and leaving their kidney disease-ridden mother all by herself. Ka-chung and Allan agree with Ka-wah and Ka-wah leads them to see their mother in the boat only to see her getting burned alive by Tsui's henchmen who set the boat on fire.

After paying respects to their mother in front of her tombstone, Ka-wah, Ka-chung and Allan beat up and capture Kui at a bar and force him to bring them to Tsui. Kui brings the three to Tsui's drug factory, where Ka-chung holds Kui hostage with a shotgun and enter through the front door. Shortly after, a gun fight breaks out while Tsui is doing a drug trade with a foreign buyer at the upper floor. Kui is killed in the chaos and Ka-chung kills a couple of henchmen before Ka-wah and Allan jump in through a window glass and joining him to take out the rest of the thugs before heading upstairs for Tsui. As the three reach the upper floor, they are held at gunpoint by Tsui and more henchmen and forced to drop their guns before Ka-wah fires a shotgun hidden inside in his pants. Ka-wah fights one of Tsui's henchman, Ka-chung fights Tsui, while Allan fights the foreign drug buyer. After Ka-wah kills the henchman, he helps Ka-chung fight off Tsui before Allan brings in a bottle a alcohol with a flaming piece of fabric. Allan hands the bottle to Ka-chung, who throws it at Tsui, who is set on fire and crashes out the window to his death.

Don't Fool Me

Hero Wah (Andy Lau) and Cheung Ho-kit (Tony Leung) star are two old friends who meet up in later life. Hero is a triad gang member and Kit is an insurance salesman, Hero is looking for a career change and Kit has become disillusioned with life after discovering he has a "bubble" in his brain that could burst at any time killing him. The two decide to switch lives for a bit with the Triad going respectable and the Insurance Salesman taking on the world of the Triads. As well as a new life, both of the two friends find new love.

All About Love (2005 film)

Ko (Andy Lau) is a hard working doctor who has little time to spend with his wife (Charlene Choi). When she dies in a car accident her heart is given to another woman, Tse Yuen Sam (Charlie Yeung). Ko later changes careers and becomes a paramedic. One night while on call in an ambulance, Ko attends a traffic accident involving Sam. He discovers she is the recipient of his wife's heart and that her husband Derek (also played by Lau) has left her. Ko decides to use their resemblance as a means of making amends for both his and Derek's treatment of their wives.

Return Engagement (1990 film)

''Return Engagement'' tells the story of Lung (Alan Tang), a Triad boss who is sent to prison in Canada. While he is in jail his daughter is taken to Hong Kong to keep her safe. On his release Lung travels to Hong Kong to find his daughter where he meets a young Triad, Wah (Andy Lau) who knows of his reputation and respects him greatly.

Craii de Curtea-Veche

Written as a first-person narrative, ''Craii de Curtea-Veche'' depicts the lives of the rich and educated boyar family descendants Pașadia and Pantazi, who are often visited by the narrator. The latter admits his admiration for Pașadia and his fascination with Pantazi.

The two's mysterious existence is revealed only through conversations and banquet episodes, which tend to end in champagne-drinking bouts and orgies. They appear versed in Western manners and refined ''salon'' culture, but love to refresh their senses by submerging in the muddy atmosphere of Bucharest brothels.

Their destiny intersects with that of Gore Pîrgu, a brutish self-seeker who is on his way up on the social scale. A combination of venality, depravity and bombastic, often demagogic discourse, Pîrgu is meant to illustrate the alternative and undertoned "Balkan-like" Romanian identity. He manages to sell Ilinca, an impoverished young noblewoman, to the libertine Pașadia, but the latter is defied by Pantazi, who offers to marry Ilinca himself and thus save her family's honour. However, fate puts an end to such a romantic happy ending, as the young woman catches scarlet fever and dies, while Pașadia ends his adventurous life in a heart attack during one of his sexual escapades. The latter stage of the novel corresponds with the onset of World War I and the drastic changes it brought to Romanian society.

The Guardians (Christopher novel)

### Escape

Following the suspicious death of his father, 13-year-old Rob Randall is sent to a State boarding school, where harsh disciplinary measures and hazing by seniors soon make life intolerable. In his desperation, Rob devises a plan of escaping to the County, reasoning that he will avoid detection there much more easily than anywhere in the Conurbs. He is further driven by the fact that his mother was also from the County, and had herself crossed over into the Conurbs to be with his father.

Slipping out and making his way to Reading, Rob comes up against the Barrier dividing the Conurbs from the County adjacent. The Barrier proves much less of a challenge than popular rumour suggests, and, finding a spot at which he is able to dig a gap underneath, Rob crosses over into the County. He takes in his expansive surroundings as he continues north-west but does not manage a long distance before he is noticed. A figure on a horse spots him and gives chase, catching up quickly as Rob twists his foot running.

The rider turns out to be a boy perhaps a year or less older than Rob himself. He appears to be sympathetic to Rob's plight and, introducing himself as Mike Gifford, tends to the blisters on Rob's feet before taking him to a nearby cave where he can rest in concealment. Mike attempts to make the cave more hospitable by appropriating food, blankets and such from the Gifford household, but these discrepancies are eventually noticed by the housekeeper and reported to Mike's mother, whose suspicion is also aroused by Mike's staying out longer. She finds the cave and confronts Rob.

Uncertain about how to proceed, Mrs Gifford allows Rob to remain in the cave one more night. The following morning, both Mike and Mrs Gifford visit the cave and speak to Rob; Mrs Gifford proposes that, as he will not willingly return to the Conurbs, and as Mike is determined to help him, the only plausible option is to fit Rob into the family. So, declaring him a relative raised in Nepal and playing out his supposed arrival from the nearest station, Rob is inducted into the Gifford family.

### A new life

Changing his surname from Randall to Perrott, Rob does his best to adapt to life in the Gifford house, getting to know Mr Gifford and the servants, as well as Cecily, Mike's younger sister. Cecily is not told Rob's story, as it is feared that she is too young to keep the secret safely. Rob is taught various skills such as horse-riding to help him blend in with County society. These skills are put to the test when the Giffords hold a garden party and Rob is questioned by Sir Percy Gregory and an elderly man named Harcourt. Under the stress, Rob fears his answers are unconvincing; but Harcourt dismisses Rob's mannerisms as typical of a "Nepalese settler".

Several months pass and Rob becomes increasingly confident and assured of his position, even going so far as to win third place in the archery contest of the year, beating Mike who comes in eleventh. Rob joins Mike at school; though he notices Mike's attitude toward him has changed. Mike brings Rob to a gathering held by a senior boy named Daniel Penfold, where a heated discussion on both the failings and the merits of the current social system ensues. While most of the boys present laugh it off, Rob notices Mike does not. Later, Mike shares with Rob his knowledge of a gang of organised revolutionaries and hints that Rob should join. Rob refuses, both on principle and for fear of his secret being divulged.

Christmas arrives and Rob celebrates it in the way of the County gentry. Mrs Gifford speaks to him about his good progress at school, noting that Mike is not doing as well. As Mike and Rob are about to visit the Penfold family, she also raises her suspicions about Mike's dealings with them, especially with the older Penfold boy, Roger, whose Army record is not entirely clean. The visit passes largely uneventfully for Rob, in spite of Roger Penfold's somewhat seditious talk during dinner. On the ride home, Mike and Rob again fall to arguing over the state of affairs; Mike declares that he probably would not have been interested in these issues if he had not run across Rob.

### The revolt

Another school term passes. One Friday, Mike pulls out of a planned fishing trip with Rob, saying that he must ride to Oxford to see about a horse. Several hours later, news arrives that a rebellion has begun and that both Oxford and Bristol have been taken by armed rebels. Rob returns in haste to the Giffords' where Mrs Gifford demands he tell her what he knows about Mike's involvement. He does, and she rebukes him angrily, reminding him of Mike's kindness to him when he was in need. Ashamed, Rob prepares to ride out to meet a band of vigilantes countering the insurrection, but Mrs Gifford asks him to stay as all the men of the house have already ridden out.

The next morning, Mr. Gifford and his men return to the house; the revolt had been put down without their aid. The younger Penfold is said to have been killed and there is no news of Mike, though his name is not on the incomplete list of dead and wounded. That night, Mike steals into the house and visits Rob, unbeknownst to the family. It is his last visit; he is fully aware of his status as a fugitive and realises that his involvement in the revolt means that he can no longer remain in the County. He declares his intention to cross the Barrier into the Conurbs, where the movement has "friends". Rob tries to dissuade him and threatens to raise the alarm but is restrained by the thought that Mike had not turned ''him'' in when he had been in a similar position. Mike gives Rob an address in the Conurb where he can be found, should he change his mind and decide to join him. They shake hands and he rides out.

The next day, a patrol stops at the Gifford house with orders to escort Rob for questioning. Rob's initial apprehensions about this are calmed when he is taken not to law enforcement but to Old Hall, Sir Percy Gregory's home. Over coffee and cherry cake, Rob recounts his old Nepal backstory again in response to Sir Percy's prompting questions. Sir Percy, however, shocks him when complimenting him by using his real surname. It becomes clear that Rob's true identity has been known to him, and the authorities have tolerated his presence in the County. Using this as leverage, Sir Percy attempts to manipulate Rob into informing. Rob tells him everything except for Mike's late-night visit and the secret address; this seems to satisfy Sir Percy. Disturbingly, Sir Percy tells Rob of what is to be done with Mike if he is found: a certain surgical procedure on the brain which renders the subject docile and obedient. He also tells Rob of the secret group of overseers responsible for the present system (the titular "Guardians") and, having appraised the intelligence and initiative Rob has shown in coming this far, offers to recruit him.

### Epiphany

Rob returns home by evening. Mrs Gifford tells him that she is aware of Mike's visit the night previous – having again noted the absence of some household articles, such as food and clothing – and again rebukes Rob for not doing what she feels would have been the right thing. To justify himself, Rob explains about the operation that would have been performed on Mike had he turned him in. Mrs Gifford reveals that she knows of this, and that Mr Gifford himself had been subject to it; hence his preoccupation with bonsai and little else.

This revelation causes an epiphany for Rob Perrott. He realises that Mike had inherited a spirit of freedom from his father, and though his father had been forced into submission, Mike had not grown up entirely blind to the oppression around him. Rob also realises that he had almost bought into the groupthink himself by assimilating into the gentry with such determination that he had forgotten his Conurban past, even taking up the offer to join the Guardians. He makes a decision: either he can remain in the place he has won in County society, now in perfect safety, or he can join the movement which has fled to the Conurbs and struggle alongside Mike in liberating the masses.

The story closes with Rob leaving the Giffords at night and returning to the Barrier, trowel in hand.

Mother of Tears

The film begins with members of the Catholic Church lead by Monsignor Brusca (Franco Leo) digging up the body of a 19th-century church official, whose casket has a box-shaped urn chained to it. Inside the box they discover artifacts belonging to Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias), the last surviving member of the Three Mothers; an ancient trio of powerful black magic witches. In particular, the box contains a magic tunic that, when worn by Mater Lachrymarum, increases her powers significantly.

The urn is shipped to the Museum of Ancient Art in Rome, where Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento), an American studying art restoration, works. Sarah is dating the curator Michael Pierce (Adam James), a single father who is away from the museum that night. With help from the assistant curator Giselle (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni), Sarah opens the box and finds the tunic, a dagger, and three statues representing the three witches. Sending Sarah to her office to retrieve tools to help her translate the text on the artifacts, the curator is promptly attacked by the demonic agents of Mater Lachrymarum. Sarah arrives too late to save her boss (who is being disembowelled by the monsters) and starts to flee the museum.

Unfortunately, she is pursued by Mater Lachrymarum's familiar (a baboon) and is only able to escape when a disembodied voice magically throws open a series of locked doors keeping her trapped inside the museum. Sarah tells the police what happened as she spends the night with Michael and his son, Paul. Michael visits the Cardinal who sent him the urn only to find out that, shortly after mailing the urn to him, he had a severe stroke and is now in a coma. An assistant of the priest, Father Milesi (Tommaso Banfi) gives Michael a piece of paper, which the Cardinal was writing on before collapsing. On it is scrawled the name "Mater Lachrymarum". Michael is observed by a pair of witches while leaving the hospital.

Back in Rome, chaos descends as a wave of mass suicides, murder and violence engulfs the city. Sarah continues her own research only to be summoned by Michael to his apartment. The witches have kidnapped his young son and won't return the boy to him unless he stops his investigation. Sarah begs him to call the police (who are tailing Sarah, ever since the murder at the museum) but Michael refuses to and instead opts to visit a local priest who is a trained exorcist. This goes badly for Michael; the two witches see him and he is soon captured and murdered, along with his son, whose body is cannibalized by the rapidly expanding coven. However, before he is killed, Michael calls Sarah and begs for her to come and help him. As she makes her way through a crowded train station, Sarah is spotted by a gang of witches who, like so many other witches, have arrived in Rome in order to pledge their loyalty to Mater Lachrymarum. Pursued by the witches and the police, the disembodied voice from before instructs Sarah on how to magically make herself invisible. She uses this to avoid a police detective, though she is forced to kill a witch, Katerina, who catches and corners her on the train.

At the priest's home, Sarah meets Marta, a fellow white witch and friend of Sarah's deceased mother. Realizing that Sarah's mother is the voice guiding her, Marta reveals details to Sarah about her parents. Her mother was a powerful white witch who dared to challenge and severely wound Mater Suspiriorum, the eldest and wisest of the Three Mothers. In response to this, Suspiriorum caused the fatal car crash that killed Sarah's parents. Though Mater Suspiriorum and her sister Mater Tenebrarum are now dead, their sibling Mater Lachrymarum has emerged from the shadows to bring about the second age of magic, with the fall of Rome as her coming-out party. They talk to the priest, only for him to be killed by one of his patients before he can give the two a copy of a book that would explain Mater Lachrymarum's backstory.

Escaping back to the city, Sarah goes to her own home but finds Mater Lachrymarum's goons waiting for her. She heads to Marta's house, but once again Mater Lachrymarum's minions strike and Marta and her lesbian lover are murdered. Fleeing, Sarah spots Michael, who takes her back to his apartment. Unfortunately, Sarah soon realizes that Michael is dead and that Mater Lachrymarum is animating his body in an attempt to kill her. As she burns her lover's still-animate body, the ghost of her mother intervenes one final time to grab Michael and banish him (and possibly herself) to Hell.

Sarah locates a powerful alchemist, whom Marta mentioned as her only hope to learn how to fight Mater Lachrymarum. After being briefly paralyzed by the alchemist (so that he could perform a test on her to see if she was a white witch or an evil witch), the alchemist gives Sarah the only help he has in locating Mater Lachrymarum's dwelling. Sarah is given a copy of "The Three Mothers" to read, and from this (and from following a group of witches) Sarah finds Mater Lachrymarum's lair; a now run-down and disrepaired mansion. At this point, she is joined by Detective Enzo Marki, one of the police officers hunting her, and the two go into the catacombs to find Mater Lachrymarum. However, the two become separated, and Enzo is tortured alongside the alchemist and his assistant, who dies after his arm is chopped off by one of Mater Lachrymarum's minions. Sarah is caught and brought before Mater Lachrymarum, who offers Sarah up to her cannibal followers. Sarah, having healed Enzo's wounds, uses a spear to pull the cloak off Mater Lachrymarum and tosses it into a nearby fire. This causes the mansion to collapse as a pillar falls and impales Mater Lachrymarum. With the Mother's followers crushed as the cave collapses, Sarah and Enzo laugh in horror and shock upon reaching the surface, as they realize that the threat of the Three Mothers has been defeated once and for all.

Yesterday Once More (2004 film)

Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng star as Mr. and Mrs. Thief, a husband and wife team of super-thieves. After a successful diamond robbery, the two get into an argument about how the loot should be split up and the husband leaves.

Two years later, Mrs Thief is on the verge of remarrying although her affections lie more with the expensive necklace belonging to her fiancé's mother-in-law than with the husband to be. When a plot to steal the necklace ends up falling into the hands of Mr. Thief, the couple are forced together again.

The Tigers (film)

Veteran CID inspector Lam Fong-tin of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force leads his squad consisting of sergeants Lau Chi-ming, (nicknamed Thief), Dandruff, Pong and Wah to bust the firearms smuggler Sha-pei. Through interrogation, Sha-pei tips the squad about a upcoming drug trade between triad leaders Wai and Chiuchow Ping. During the operation at the ship yard to bust their deal, Wai was arrested, but Tin was shocked to discover his brother-in-law, Fong Heung-tung, working for Wai. Tung pleads Tin to let him go and leaves him a briefcase of HK$10 million cash before fleeing by jumping into the water. However, Thief and Dandruff take the money instead of reporting it as evidence and plan to share it with the rest of the squad, but Pong furiously refuses his share due to his upright morals and berates the two. Thief promises to bear full responsibility if anything goes wrong.

Tung pleads with Tin to release Wai, but Tin furiously refuses, so Tung threatens him, knowing the squad took the money. Tin and his squad persuade Pong, who arrested Wai, to give false testimonials in court to release Wai, to which Pong also reluctantly agrees. Afterwards, the squad attempts to negotiate with Tung and return his money, but Tung refuses the money and forces them to collude with him, threatening to report them to the ICAC if they refuse. Tung gives them a tip about another deal between Wai and Ping, hoping to usurp Wai's position. The squad busts the deal where they arrest Ping, but let him go free in a scheme to turn him against Wai and get them both arrested along with Tung.

Ping arrives with his underlings at a disco bar to settle the score with Wai before he reveals to the latter that Tung tipped the police (thanks to information from Tin), as Thief and Dandruff wait nearby to make arrests. Tung manages to kill both Wai and Ping and flees amidst the chaos to the parking lot where Dandruff stops him. However, Dandruff clumsily drops his pistol, which was picked up by Tung, and Thief arrives and exchanges fire with Tung, while Dandruff starts his car in order to flee the scene with Thief. Unexpectedly, Tung manages to get in Dandruff's car and shoots the latter dead before fleeing.

Tung calls CID superintendent Cho and reveals the corruption of Tin and the squad to him, but Cho instead shelters his underlings, so Tung threatens to report them to the ICAC. The squad set up a trap to arrest Tung, who counters and gets Pong arrested by the ICAC. Not long after, Tin, Thief and Wah get arrested and detained by the ICAC as well, while Pong was released without charge. Tung becomes a witness for the ICAC and is under their protection. After 48 hours, Thief and Wah are released, but Tin is officially under investigation by the ICAC. At this time, Tung is also suspected of murder by the police and must give a testimony at the police station where Pong beats him to a pulp. While the ICAC escort Tung out of the police station, Thief, armed with a blade, attempts to murder Tung, but fails and flees with the help of a colleague.

Pong bails Tin out briefly when the latter reconciled with his estranged daughter, Shirley, before being detained again. In order to protect his squad, Tin decides to bear all responsibility for the corruption and hangs himself in his jail cell. After hearing the news of Tin's death, Thief, Pong and Wah are determined to settle the score with Tung at Volvo Hotel, where Tung is staying under the protection of the ICAC. Since Tin died, ICAC investigation team captain Tam tells Tung that the case is closed and will send him to the police for the murder of Dandruff. Tung escapes by killing two ICAC officers assigned to protect him, but Thief, Pong and Wah arrive just in time to stop him, ensuing a prolonged chase and a fight at the hotel where Wah is killed after Tung throws him off multiple stories. Eventually, Thief and Pong subdue Tung just as the SDU arrive. Despite the SDU's presence, Thief shoots Tung dead before shooting himself in front the police, fulfilling the promise that he made at the beginning that he will bear all responsibility.

Crocodile Hunter (film)

While on duty saving hostages in a movie theater, Special Duties Unit officer Happy Chiu (Andy Lau) is shot in the head by a criminal disguised as a hostage and is hospitalized for nine months. Despite having a bullet lodged in his head, Happy refuses to retire so he applies to transfer as a senior inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to earn cash to pay for his mother's (Soh Hang-suen) kidney transplant operation. At this time, a group of thieves led by Prince (Lung Fong) have escaped from prison and the police have issued a bounty of HK$800,000 to have them captured, so Happy assigns his CID detective Bad Odor Chuen (Alex Man), a cowardly, incompetent, officer who was previously humiliated by Prince's underling, Shrimp (Eddie Mauher), who forced Chuen to undress himself at gunpoint. Lam Tin-fu (Ricky Wong), elder son of Lam's Group CEO Lam Yuet-ting (Foo Wang-tat), is unhappy that his father appointing his younger brother (Jimmy Wong) to be his successor, so he hires Prince to stage a robber at Lam's Group to get his father and brother killed.

Happy and Chuen then tricks Bitchy Ying (Sandra Ng), the imprisoned girlfriend of Stalled Engine Tak (Cheung Kwok-keung), who is the computer hacker in Prince's gang, into work with them by paying her fellow prisoners to threaten her. Happy is then informed by his superior, Superintendent Wai (Lau Kong), that TV actress Lam Ka-sin (Elvina Kong) is being stalked by another one of Prince's underling, Convulsion (Frankie Chan) and rushes to her apartment with Chuen and narrowly saves her from being killed by Convulsion and bring her to the safe house where she gets into a fight with Ying as they were childhood rivals. When Prince sees Tak calling his mother asking the whereabouts of Ying, Tak reveals to Prince that Ying is held by Happy and Chuen at Kowloon Peak and pleads Prince to save her, but he and his gang shoots up the safehouse and also shoots Ying (who was wearing a bullet vest given by Chuen) and lies to Tak that his girlfriend has died but still convinces Tak to work for him. Tak then requests a computer to practice his hacking skills and uses it to send a tip that Prince is robbing the Lam's Building Saturday at 7 PM to his computer at home, which is seen by his family along with Chuen and Ying, who were visiting his family for tips. Happy and Chuen then tails Lam Tin-fu, which irritates the latter, who then frames the two for assaulting him. Happy and Chuen are put under investigation and suspended from their duties, but Superintendent Wai purposely gives them their suspension letters without a start date to allow them to continue to work on the case.

On the night Lam Yuet-ting announces to pass down his position as CEO to his second son, Prince and his gang arrives and holds a number of rich guests hostage while demanding Lam to bring him to the antique vault in the company to obtain the priceless Along the River During the Qingming Festival painting inside. Chuen and Ying were tied up by Shrimp, who forced them to undress themselves, while Happy saves the hostages and keeps them safe locked inside the elevator. Prince then reveals to Lam Ting-yuet that Tin-fu colluded with him before killing the latter and Ting-yuet gives the password to the vault before being killed by Prince. Happy arrives in time and save Lam's second son while Tak smashes the computer to the vault which triggers the alarm to the police and was shot by Prince. Chuen and Ying manages to untie themselves and the latter finds Tak who opens the vault and take the priceless painting for themselves. Happy shoots the rest of Prince's gang and kills Convulsion in fight, while Chuen kills Shrimp after re-enacting their first encounter.

Prince pretends to be a hostage and escapes after knocking out an officer, but Happy catches up with him in the parking lot but is at an disadvantage when he drops his glasses. Fortunetly, Tak and Ying arrive to help him and Happy kills Prince by throwing and impaling him with a pen belonging to his deceased journalist father. Chuen is then reunited with his estranged wife (Rosamund Kwan) and daughter after witness his heroic acts on live news.

Ju-On: The Curse

The film is told in non-chronological order through six segments, each titled after a character central to each segment. They are, in order: Toshio (俊雄), Yuki (由紀), Mizuho (瑞穂), Kanna (柑菜), Kayako (伽椰子), and Kyoko (響子).

Illustrator Takeo Saeki murdered his wife, Kayako, after discovering from her journal that she had held a deep crush with her college friend, Shunsuke Kobayashi. He also killed his son, Toshio Saeki, and the family cat, Mar, before deserting his house. The anger and sorrow surrounding the murder created a curse that turned its inhabitants into Onryō. Whoever enters the house in Nerima, Tokyo, or even those associating themselves with someone who has entered the house will be affected and claimed by the curse, spreading its influence at the place they die and claiming more victims.

Kobayashi, who happens to be Toshio's elementary school teacher, visits the Saeki house concerning Toshio's repeated absence from school, leaving his pregnant wife, Manami, in their apartment. He only finds Toshio, who refuses to speak with him, forcing him to wait for Toshio's parents to come home. Kobayashi grows weary of the strangeness that surrounds the house, and after accidentally stumbling upon Kayako's room, he learns of her unrequited love for him as well as her bloody corpse, hidden in the attic. Panicking, Kobayashi tries to escape with Toshio until he receives a call from Takeo, who has gone to his apartment and forcefully aborted Manami's unborn fetus, killing her. In shock, he is unable to respond properly as Kayako's animated corpse suddenly moves and kills him. Meanwhile, Takeo walks limply while carrying the dead fetus and is killed in the street by Kayako.

An unknown amount of time later, the Saeki house is occupied by the Murakami family. Daughter Kanna is taught by her tutor, Yuki, until she remembers that she has to go to school to feed the school rabbits. Yuki, who has a phobia of cats, backs up towards Kanna's closet when a black cat suddenly appears in the house. Hearing strange sounds from the attic, she goes to investigate and is pulled up by Kayako to her death. Kanna's brother, Tsuyoshi, however, is unaware of the incident and goes to school to meet his girlfriend, Mizuho Tamura. Tsuyoshi never makes it to the school and Mizuho is forced to wait in the teacher's room while a teacher inspects the school once more. There, she is spooked by Toshio until she receives a call from "4444444444" (the Japanese word for 4 (四, ''shi'') is pronounced similarly to the word for "death" (死, ''shi''), at which point Toshio appears directly beside her.

Meanwhile, Detective Yoshikawa and his aide, Kamio, investigate a mutilated body of a high school girl, Hisayo Yoshida, who is one of the two students scheduled to feed the school rabbits, and an unrelated human jaw nearby. Before leaving, Yoshikawa questions if a human can survive without a jaw. Back at the Murakami house, mother Noriko has just returned home from shopping when she notices a seemingly beaten up Kanna entering her house. She screams when her daughter moves to face her, showing her without her jaw.

Some time later, the Nerima house is taken over by the Suzuki Real Estate, owned by Tatsuya Suzuki, for sale. Tatsuya contacts his spiritually-aware sister, Kyoko, to visit the house. She immediately feels discomfort upon entering the house, and becomes further disturbed after a brief meeting with Kayako. After taking a gulp of sake, Kyoko tells Tatsuya that anyone who want to purchase the house has to drink the sake; if they spit it out, they should not buy it. She makes a hasty escape from the house, leaving her brother behind. A while later, Kyoko is informed that the house has been sold to the Kitada couple. She decides to check on the house once more and is shocked when she discovers that the wife, Yoshimi Kitada, has been possessed by Kayako.

The Bet Collector

An ordinary meaningless existence can suddenly be challenged by the perplexing game of life, luck and death.

Amelita or Amy is an aging jueteng kubrador (bet collector). Despite the regular crackdown on the illegal numbers game, she clings to the job she has known for more than 20 years. She walks around the poverty-stricken squatter's neighborhood collecting bets from her regular patrons every day. Her husband Eli, who is equally aging, can only manage to help by manning their small sari-sari (variety store). Amy's grown up children have all left home. Her eldest daughter Mona works as a domestic helper abroad. Her second daughter, Juvy, who is always pregnant, lives with her in-laws. Amy's youngest son, Eric, a young soldier, recently died on combat duty in Mindanao.

While collecting bets three days before All Saints day, Amy is apprehended by a police officer. She joins the other kubradors in the police station until their kabo (handler) bails them out.

The following morning, Amy returns to the streets and continues her clandestine activity. She meets the parish priest, who informs her of a young neighbor's sudden death from an accident. The priest asks her to collect abuloy (donations) from neighbors and friends.

When Amy remits her afternoon jueteng collection to her kabo, she finds him sick at home. He then asks her to attend the next jueteng draw on his behalf, Amy being a trusted ally of the jueteng network for a long time.

Amy and the other kabos await the arrival of the table manager (supervisor) of the draw in a secluded location. But when the table manager arrives, he announces that the draw is cancelled and informs everyone the winning numbers from the jueteng financier.

When Amy goes home that night, her husband Eli tells her the bad news. He failed to hand over a bet from a neighbor whose numbers, to Amy's surprise, won the rigged draw. Pissed off, she has no choice but to go to her kabo and borrow money in order to pay out the neighbor. That night, the neighbors have lighted candles in front of their houses to welcome the feast of All Saints Day the next morning.

A mammoth crowd greets Amy and her family as they approach the cemetery. At Eric's grave they saw Glenda, Eric's girlfriend, offering flowers and prayers for her dead boyfriend. Still pissed off with Eli, Amy leaves and wanders around the cemetery to cool off. Suddenly she hears a commotion. Two vehicles figured in a collision. The two drivers engage in a heated argument until one of them pulls out a gun and fires a shot. The bullet goes pass Amy and hits a teenage boy behind her. Amy shouts for help. Police arrive and arrest the suspect. Other bystanders help load the bloodied body of the boy in a vehicle. Still in a state of shock, Amy follows gaze as the vehicle speeds away from the crime scene.

Joker's Millions

At the funeral of "King" Barlowe, a criminal racketeer and a major rival of the Joker, the Joker is surprised to learn that he has inherited Barlowe's vast fortune. With his newfound fortune, the Joker builds himself a life of luxury and retires from crime. The Joker spends his money freely, thinking that he still has plenty of it left, only to discover that Barlowe has had the last laugh after all from beyond the grave - the money is all counterfeit. He then receives a visit from the IRS, which has assessed an inheritance tax based on the total amount of the supposed fortune.

The Joker is torn between reporting the inheritance as counterfeit in order to avoid the tax liability (thus becoming a laughing stock in the Gotham City underworld for admitting that Barlowe had tricked him), going to jail for tax evasion, or returning to crime in order to pay the inheritance tax, rebuild his fortune, and protect his reputation. The Joker chooses the third option, yet he decides to commit normal, "un-Jokerish" crimes as secretly as possible and without his usual calling card flourishes, figuring that no one would ever suspect him of such pedestrian affairs. First he breaks into a bank safe, but "fate's invisible hand plays strange tricks" as the wind blows a movie theater's banner onto the bank that the Joker just robbed, making it look like a Joker crime. After discovering that the Joker's money is counterfeit, Batman and Robin have to prove that the Joker is actually committing these crimes.

When the Joker performs a stick-up at the Gotham Opera House dressed in a trenchcoat and slouch hat, Batman is able to guess that the Joker was behind it and burns the theater's tickets to ''I Pagliacci'' to make it, too, look like a Joker crime. A similar deduction occurs after the Joker tries robbing the Gotham Zoo. Batman locks himself in the zoo's bat cage to make it look like a joke that was performed on him by the Joker. The Joker, jumping at the chance to satisfy his massive ego, claims to an underworld friend that he had robbed the zoo for the sole purpose of humiliating Batman. However, the underworld friend was actually Batman in disguise, and with a recording of the Joker's confession that Batman made, the Joker is promptly arrested.

The Lagoon

Tuan hops aboard a boat to visit a long-lost friend named Arsat. When he meets Arsat, he finds out his wife, Diamelen, is dying. Arsat then tells him a story, starting with the time when he and his brother (the brother was never given a name) kidnapped Diamelen (Arsat's wife, who was previously a servant of the Rajah's wife). They all fled in a boat at night and traveled until they were exhausted. They stopped on a bit of land jutting out into the water to rest.

Soon however, they spotted a large boat of the Rajah's men coming to find them. Arsat's brother told Diamelen and Arsat to flee to the other side, where there was a fisherman's hut. He instructed them to take the fisherman's boat and then stayed back, telling them to wait for him, while he tried to hold the pursuers off with a limited amount of gunpowder. Arsat then starts pushing the canoe from shore, leaving his brother behind. He then sees his brother running down the path, being chased by the pursuers. Arsat's brother tripped and the enemy was upon him. His brother got up, then called out to him three times, but Arsat never looked back. The pursuers killed his brother and Arsat had betrayed his brother for the woman he loved, who was now dying.

Towards the end of the story, symbolically, the sun rises and Diamelen dies. With Diamelen's death, Arsat has nothing because he lost his brother and wife. He now had nothing. After Diamelen's death, he tells Tuan he plans to return to his home village to avenge his brother's death. The story concludes with "Tuan" s simply leaving, and Arsat's staring dejectedly into the sun and "a world of illusion".

Gates of Fire

The novel is narrated by Xeones, a perioikos and one of only three Greek survivors of the Battle of Thermopylae. His story is dictated to King Xerxes and transcribed by his court historian, Gobartes.

At Thermopylae, the allied Greek nations deployed a small force of four thousand Greek heavy infantry against the invading Persian army of two million strong. Leading the Greeks was a small force of three hundred Spartans, chosen because they were all "sires" — men who had to have sons who could preserve their blood line, should they fall in battle.

Thermopylae was the only gateway into Greece for the Persian army, and presented the perfect choke point — a narrow pass bordered by a huge mountain wall on one side and a cliff drop-off to the sea on the other. This area decreased the Persians' advantage of having large numbers. Delaying the Persian advance here would give the Greek allies enough time to ready a larger, main force to defend against the Persians. The battle takes place simultaneously with the sea battle at Artemisium, where the Allied Greek forces hoped to protect the flank of the army at Thermopylae whilst not being cut off themselves. The Greeks were at a disadvantage at Artemisium, as at Thermopylae - the Persians outnumbered the Allies, and most of the Athenian ships were newly built and crewed by inexperienced sailors - and both sides suffered heavy losses in the sea battle.

The novel is told from either the perspective of the royal scribe to the Persian king Xerxes, as he records the story of Xeones, after the battle, or in the first person from Xeones' point of view. Though Xeones is critically wounded in the battle, the Persian King Xerxes orders his surgeons to make every effort to keep the captive squire alive. Much of the narrative explores Spartan society, particularly the agoge, which is the military training program which all young Spartan boys must complete to become citizens of Sparta. The novel also details the heroics of several dozen Spartans, including the King of Sparta, Leonidas, the Olympic champion Polynikes, a young Spartan warrior named Alexandros, and the Spartan officer Dienekes. Pressfield employs detailed descriptions of the Spartan phalanx in battle, as well as the superior training and discipline of the Spartan warriors.

The Adventures of Brer Rabbit

A girl named Janey is constantly pushed around by her siblings, Lester and Julie. She goes for a walk in the woods, only to happen upon an anthropomorphic rabbit named Brer Rabbit being chased by a fox named Brer Fox. Brer Rabbit soon tricks Brer Fox into getting trapped down a well before scurrying off. Janey is soon approached by Brer Turtle, who begins to tell her some of Brer Rabbit’s exploits. The movie then becomes a series of vignettes starring Brer Rabbit.

### How the Animals Came to Earth

Brer Turtle explains that the animals once lived as constellations in outer space, watched over by Sister Moon. When Sister Moon catches a cold, she tasks Brer Rabbit to send a message to a human on Earth named Mr. Man that she will be going away for a while to recuperate through a series of metaphors. While Brer Rabbit manages to get the message across, he was confused and didn’t tell Mr. Man exactly how she said it, prompting Sister Moon to get upset and they have a spat that culminates in Brer Rabbit making holes in her. Because of this, Brer Rabbit decides to move to Earth and when he tells the other animals how good it is, they decide to move with him.

### How Brer Rabbit Tricks Brer Fox Again and what came next

Brer Rabbit spends his days trying to avoid getting eaten by the predator animals (most notably Brer Fox and Brer Wolf) and constantly outwits them through a series of comical hijinks.

### Brer Rabbit Tricks Brer Bear

When Brer Rabbit tries to pick some peanuts in Brer Fox’s property, he is promptly caught in a trap and hung from a tree. He notices Brer Bear coming along and dupes him into taking his place by saying that he is “earning a dollar and hour” by guarding the peanut bushes and they manage to switch before Brer Fox comes.

### Sister Moon in the Pond

The animals have an annual fishing trip at night. Brer Rabbit is having no such luck, so he and Brer Turtle work together to distract the others by making them think Sister Moon is in the pond and scaring away the fishes so that they can steal their fish for themselves.

### How Brer Rabbit breaks up the Party

Brer Turtle tells Janey that Brer Rabbit’s antics eventually caused the other animals to snub him from a party at Brer Fox’s house. Brer Rabbit soon gets an idea to retaliate by covering himself in mud, leaves and sticks and pretends to be a monster to scare away the animals, putting an abrupt end to the party. Satisfied with his payback at first, Brer Rabbit then sadly walks away to sulk in loneliness.

### Brer Rabbit to the Rescue

Feeling sorry for Brer Rabbit, Brer Turtle attempts to get Brer Wolf to befriend him, but Brer Wolf rebuffs him and soon tries to eat him before Brer Rabbit saves him. After which, Brer Rabbit then begins to perform selfless acts for the other animals, causing him to be in their good graces, with the exception of Brer Fox.

### How Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear Trick Brer Fox

When Brer Rabbit learns from Brer Fox that he is after some “big game” food to feed his relatives, he soon find out that he’s trying to capture Brer Bear. So the two of them manage to trick Brer Fox into catching the ferocious Brer Lion and Brer Fox is promptly beaten to a pulp. However, later that night, Brer Fox breaks down Brer Rabbit’s front door and captures him.

### Brer Rabbit’s Laughing Place

Tied up to a pole to be roasted by Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit manages to convince him that creatures who eat “sad rabbits” don’t fare very well and tells Brer Fox that he can be happy if he goes to his “laughing place”. Brer Rabbit leads Brer Fox way across the forest to an old tree where he tricks Brer Fox into causing a bee-hive to fall on his head, prompting the Fox to run away, leaving Brer Rabbit tied up on the pole.

### Brer Wolf Gets in Trouble

Brer Wolf finds Brer Rabbit tied to the pole but before he eats him, Brer Rabbit fools Brer Wolf into going into a log by saying that there’s buried treasure within it. Brer Rabbit pushes the log off a cliff it was hanging over and into a pond where he meets Brer Fox and they soon find out that Brer Rabbit tricked them both again.

### Brer Rabbit and The Tar Baby

Brer Fox and Brer Wolf resolve to get revenge on the rabbit by making a baby out of tar. When Brer Rabbit happens upon it he gets trapped in it, and Brer Fox and Brer Wolf appear to ponder on how to get rid of Brer Rabbit. The rabbit sees a briar patch and gets an idea to use reverse psychology to make them throw him in there. They do so, and Brer Rabbit gets free and tricks them into jumping into the patch themselves.

Back in the present, Brer Fox happens upon Brer Turtle and Janey and asks where Brer Rabbit went. Brer Turtle points him in the wrong direction. After Brer Fox leaves, Brer Rabbit arrives and Janey asks how he is able to trick the other animals, to which Brer Rabbit responds “just give them what they think they want”. Janet’s mother than calls her for dinner and she says goodbye to the animals.

### How Janey Tricks Lester

In the final vignette, Janey takes what Brer Rabbit said to heart and dupes Lester into wanting their mom’s dinner, which is tuna casserole, much to his dismay. Brer Rabbit and Turtle see this and are impressed before they have a race to go back to the woods. Brer Rabbit is then caught in another trap.

The movies ends by showing Sister Moon in outer space watching over the rabbit with a smile before winking at the audience.

Noo Hin: The Movie

Noo Hin is a young woman living in Ubon Ratchathani in Northeast Thailand, and as the story opens, she is hunting for something to eat, and she spots a lizard (an animated character), which she chases throughout the countryside, causing a stampede of water buffalo and disrupting a village fair.

Noo Hin, it seems, is a constant troublemaker in the village, which as is typical for Isan is poor, with few prospects for jobs or a productive rice crop. Because Noo Hin is essentially useless, she must be sent to Bangkok to earn money in a factory.

Her departure at the railway station is a cause for celebration. Even the village band turns out to add to festivities.

As she rides on the train, Noo Hin imagines getting a job in a glamorous factory, making trendy bags, T-shirts and shoes. Her fantasy is acted out in a musical song-and-dance number. But at the employment agency, all that's left is a job in a rat-trap factory, which is horrifying to Noo Hin.

But as luck has it, an attractive, tall and large-breasted young woman strides into the agency looking for a new maid, and Noo Hin gets the job.

The young woman's name is Milk (มิลค์), which Noo Hin thinks is funny as the Thai word for milk (นม) has the dual meaning for both milk and breasts.

Noo Hin has troubles adapting to the city right from the start. She has never used a seatbelt in a car before. She is given some insect spray to get rid of bugs in her room. Its odor is pleasing, so she sprays so much that she faints from the fumes.

She also can't understand why Milk and her older sister, Som-O (Pomelo), are so obsessed with their appearance. Som-O is especially concerned, and is constantly exercising, using a piece of equipment or a vibrating belt she hopes will melt away any fat that might be on her waistline. Noo Hin is further mystified by the behavior of urban women, who fight over items in sales bins at Siam Center and use whitening cream to make their underarms sparkle.

The house is bigger than the provincial government building back home, but the resourceful Noo Hin settles in, wearing dust-mops on her feet, a head-dress of feather dusters and twirling a broom as she whips things into shape during another song-and-dance number.

Noo Hin also has time for romance, meeting Tong, who she sees at the house next door, working in the garden. She strikes up a friendship with him and makes him her special som tam. She is disappointed to find out later, however, that he is actually the son of the home's owners, and not a gardener from Isan.

With the housework in order and the family happy, Noo Hin sets her sights on her next project – making Milk and Som-O famous. So Noo Hin secretly enters both the girls in a "super model" contest, an idea that Milk and Som-O are angry about at first, but their social-climbing mother soon warms up to it.

At the contest, the girls catch the eye of a French designer's assistant, much to the dismay of jealous supermodel Sonia. But the event is marred when Noo Hin catches a young man snapping mobile phone camera pictures of Milk in her dressing room. Noo Hin accuses the man, but he turns out to be the son of an influential member of society (a hi-so, in Thai slang), and the case is swept under the rug and Noo Hin forced to apologize.

Still, both Milk and Som-O are sought after by the French designer, and as the sisters are being driven to another modeling appointment, they are kidnapped and held in a love hotel. Noo Hin, meanwhile, is spirited away to a sweatshop factory where Isan women are forced to sew stuffed animals under the supervision of men in black to the beat of a DJ playing techno.

Eventually, Noo Hin is able to charm one of the guards (who turns out to be an Isan native) and mount a rescue of the enslaved factory workers, while neighbor Tong tracks down Milk's and Som-O's whereabouts. They make it to the modelling engagement in time, only to be confronted by supermodel Sonia, who it turns out was the mastermind of the kidnapping. She is further exposed in front of the fashion designer, when it is revealed that she wears silicone falsies.

Milk and Som-O are then chosen to be the lead models for a new line of clothes by the French designer, which it turn out, have been inspired by Noo Hin's indigenous wardrobe. They are to be flown to France for further assignments, and Noo Hin will go along with them, likely stirring up trouble wherever she goes.

Run Like Hell (video game)

Mining surveyor and former war hero Nicholas Conner (voiced by Lance Henriksen), returns to his space station known as the Forsetti Station to find it overrun by a hostile, previously unknown alien species known simply as The Race. Most of the crew members are dead, Nick's fiancée Samantha is missing, and he soon discovers that the entire station is slowly degenerating into an alien hive. Using his war experience and a large arsenal of weapons, Nick must fight through a group of hostile enemies to locate survivors on the station who can help him find Samantha.

The Lies of Locke Lamora

The Gentleman Bastards are masters of deception, disguise, and fine cuisine. Father Chains, their "garrista" (leader), is a priest of the Crooked Warden, the god of thieves. He buys troublesome youth Locke for his gang. Through a series of confidence tricks on the rich, they defy the Secret Peace, an unspoken agreement between the criminal underground and the Duke’s government which allows for the existence of organized crime with the understanding that the peerage and the servants of justice are off limits. After Chains' death, Locke becomes garrista of the group, consisting of Jean Tannen, an expert fighter; Calo and Galdo Sanza, jack-of-all-trades identical twins; and Bug, a young apprentice. Their wayward female associate Sabetha is mentioned, but resides elsewhere during the events of the novel.

The criminal underworld of Camorr is ruled with an iron fist by the Capa Barsavi, who collects a commission on all criminal activity under his purview. Under Locke's leadership, the Gentleman Bastards are known as a small gang of gentrified but petty thieves and pickpockets, and their dues, though regularly paid, are relatively small. Secretly, the Bastards have actually been using elaborate schemes to swindle various nobles out of large sums, and have amassed a considerable fortune; they ''purchase'' the trinkets they pass on to Barsavi as tribute, in accordance with their small-time reputation. What little is spoken of their operations is credited to the shadowy "Thorn of Camorr."

Locke pretends to be Lukas Fehrwight, a merchant from Emberlain, to con Don Lorenzo Salvara and his wife. Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal calling himself the Gray King has been killing Barsavi's most trusted garristas; fearing for his safety, Barsavi has sequestered himself in his ship-fortress, the Floating Grave. Locke finds himself face to face with the Gray King and his hired Bondsmage "The Falconer", who somehow know what the Gentleman Bastards have been up to; Locke agrees to impersonate the Gray King in an arranged meeting with Barsavi in exchange for the Gray King's silence, as well as the Bondsmage's magical protection from Barsavi's wrath during the meeting. The Gray King murders Barsavi's daughter Nazca and delivers her body to the Capa in a barrel of horse urine; Locke is forced to continue with the plan, even though he knows that now Barsavi will never negotiate.

At the meeting, Barsavi manages to circumvent a disguised Locke's magical protection, having him severely beaten and left to drown in a barrel. Jean and Bug save him, but they realize that the Gray King has double-crossed them; they return to their secret lair and find their wealth stolen and the Sanza twins brutally murdered. An intruder kills Bug and nearly Jean and Locke, who swear revenge. Locke goes to the Floating Grave in disguise, where Barsavi is celebrating the Gray King's supposed death. Suddenly two of Barsavi's trusted bodyguards, the fierce Berengias sisters, turn on him and cut down Barsavi and his two sons. The Gray King (whom Locke deduces is the brother of the Berengias twins) appears, introduces himself as Capa Raza and claims Barsavi's empire as his own.

Left without resources and needing funds to somehow strike back at Raza, Locke tries to complete the con against the Salvaras. Meanwhile, Jean investigates the after-dark activity of Raza's minions and realizes that the new Capa is secretly loading his newfound wealth onto a ship supposedly quarantined for plague. Before Jean can tell Locke, he is ambushed by the Berengias sisters. He manages to kill both, but is seriously wounded himself. The Duke's "Spider", Camorr's secret spymaster who is actually the elderly Doña Vorchenza, has learned that the Salvaras are being conned by the mysterious "Thorn of Camorr." She and the Salvaras lure Locke to the Duke's annual celebration, and he barely escapes. Returning to their hideout, Locke finds Jean incapacitated by the Bondsmage's sorcery, which relies on the use of Jean's true name. Locke, whose real name is not known, overpowers the Falconer and tortures him for information. Wary of revenge by other Bondsmages should he be killed, Jean and Locke remove his fingers and tongue so he cannot gesture or speak spells, leaving him alive but insane.

Capa Raza has planned his revenge against Barsavi and the nobles of Camorr since childhood, when his parents were murdered as collateral damage from the Secret Peace. To destroy the peers, he gives the Duke of Camorr four sculptures, actually time bombs filled with a substance that will cause all of the nobles and their children present at the celebration to slide into permanent mindlessness. Locke races back to the tower from which he escaped and manages to convince Vorchenza and the Salvaras of the danger, and the devices are defused. He next coerces the Spider to set him free to kill Raza, and not put him on trial for theft as a reward for saving their lives. Vorchenza agrees when Locke has shared the location of the stolen money; he tells her that Raza has hidden his treasure on a waste barge, and instructs her to destroy the plague ship and its crew before Raza can use it to infect the city. Locke faces Raza in mortal combat even though he is outmatched by the Capa's skills with a sword, and is nearly killed before managing to distract Raza for the split second he needs to finally slay him. When no treasure is found on the barge, Vorchenza realizes that the Thorn tricked her into destroying the ship filled with Raza's fortune, which is now an offering to the god of thieves for Locke's murdered friends. Later, Jean and Locke, recovering from their injuries, sail away to a new life.

Runaway Ralph

Fed up with his bratty family, Ralph the mouse hops onto his toy motorcycle and speeds down the road away from the Mountain View Inn toward Happy Acres Camp, where he encounters Sam, a nosy watchdog, and is captured by a boy named Garfield (or Garf) and kept as a pet. Separated from his motorcycle, Ralph must endure life in a cage with an annoying hamster named Chum. Over time, Ralph and Garf form a relationship similar to the one Ralph and Keith had in the original book in the series.

Ralph's adventures at Happy Acres Camp include escapades with an evil cat, the return of a missing watch, the escape from his cage, and being reunited with his beloved motorcycle. He eventually begins feeling homesick and strikes a bargain with Garf: return the motorcycle and bring him back to the Mountain View Inn, in exchange for clearing Garf's name (the rest of the children at Happy Acres Camp believe Garf was the one who took the missing watch). Eventually, the watch is returned, and Garf reassures Ralph that he will go back home the next day.

Jumong (TV series)

Following the conquest of Gojoseon by Han China in 108 BCE, the surviving tribes and city-states of Manchuria and the northern Korean Peninsula are harshly subjugated as tributaries to the Han, who are portrayed as ruling with an iron fist from the Four Commanderies. Haemosu, the leader of the local resistance in the form of the Damul Army, covertly teams up with Prince Geumwa of Buyeo to defend and rescue Gojoseon refugees throughout the land. After being injured in a battle, Haemosu is rescued by Lady Yuhwa of the Habaek tribe (to whom Geumwa has taken a fancy), and they fall in love. Haemosu is subsequently ambushed and captured by Han forces (and after falling off a cliff is presumed dead by the outside world), and Lady Yuhwa is forced to seek shelter in Buyeo, where she becomes Geumwa's concubine and gives birth to a son, Jumong. They maintain that Geumwa is Jumong's father, when in fact Haemosu is his father.

Twenty years later, the young Jumong is a weak and cowardly prince overshadowed and scorned by his elder "half-brothers" Daeso and Youngpo, who are vying for inheritance of the Buyeo throne from their father (the now-King Geumwa). Because they believe Jumong is Geumwa's son, they assume that he has a justifiable claim to the throne, and their mother's hatred of Lady Yuhwa reinforces a feud between the half-brothers who aren't really brothers at all. This culminates in an assassination attempt by his brothers, setting in motion a sequence of events that leads to Jumong leaving the palace and, by a twist of fate, encounters his father, the now-elderly and blind Haemosu. Jumong becomes skilled in combat under Haemosu's covert tutelage, but is unaware of their father-son relationship. At the same time, Jumong forms a close relationship with Lady Soseono of the Gyeru trading clan of Jolbon. Following Haemosu's assassination by Daeso and Youngpo, Jumong learns the truth and vows to avenge his father and drive out the Han. He returns to Geumwa and leads the Buyeo army in a campaign against the Lintun and Zhenfan Commanderies, but is reported missing in action and presumed dead following an injury in battle. Subsequently, Daeso seizes power in Buyeo by colluding with Xuantu Commandery and forces Soseono to be his wife. In desperation, Soseono weds her trading partner Wootae (not knowing Jumong is still alive). Jumong, however, is rescued by the Hanbaek tribe and nursed back to health by Lady Yesoya, whom he weds. They return to Buyeo and Jumong feigns servitude to Daeso, thereby earning his trust. With Daeso's guard down, Jumong and his men manage to intercept and lead a large group of Gojoseon refugees into the wilds of Mount Bongye, where they establish a fortress and re-form the Damul Army, against Daeso's wishes, who holds Lady Yuhwa and a pregnant Yesoya hostage in the palace. After a solar eclipse, Geumwa regains the power with the help of the Prime Minister. He tries to convince Jumong to come back to palace and disband the Damul Army as part of the conditions given by the Prime minister in exchange for his reinstatement. Jumong refuses the offer and the Prime Minister tries to eliminate him and his men.

Over the next three years, the Damul Army grows and begins uniting various local tribes, to the discomfort of Buyeo and Han. Following Wootae's death in battle, Jumong and Soseono form an alliance and unite the five clans of Jolbon and the Damul Army into a single powerful entity, which succeeds in conquering the Xuantu Commandery and establishing the Kingdom of Goguryeo. When Yesoya and Yuri are reported missing from Buyeo (and presumed dead), a grieving Jumong weds Soseono and they become King and Queen of the new nation.

After ruling Goguryeo for fifteen years, Jumong succeeds in reuniting with Yesoya and Yuri (who had been living in exile after escaping from the palace). Following Geumwa's assassination by Han mercenaries, the newly-crowned King Daeso forms an alliance with Jumong, and the combined armies of Goguryeo and Buyeo succeed in conquering Liaodong Commandery with utter annihilation of the Han army in Manchuria. With Jumong's lifelong mission finally complete and in order to prevent internal strife due to Yuri's return, Soseono departs from Goguryeo and heads south with the pro-Jolbon faction and her teenage sons Biryu and Onjo, who subsequently becomes the founder of the Kingdom of Baekje on the Korean Peninsula. Buyeo eventually collapses following the battlefield death of Daeso at the hands of Jumong's grandson Muhyul. Jumong continues battling against Han China to consolidate his realm, and dies at the age of 40 after passing the crown of Goguryeo to Yuri.

A Terrible Vengeance

Danilo and Katerina attend the wedding of the Cossack ''yesaul'' Gorobets's son in a neighborhood of Kiev. During the celebration, the yesaul brings out two holy icons, at the sight of which a stranger transforms into a sorcerer and disappears. As soon as Katerina's father arrives at her and Danilo's home the next morning, he demands that she explain her late return the previous night. In the ensuing fight, Katerina's father shoots Danilo in the arm before she intervenes and begs them to forgive one another.

Katerina tells Danilo she had a dream the previous night about a sorcerer who wants to marry her. Danilo discovers that the sorcerer is her own father and realizes he is the Antichrist. The Cossacks capture her father and chain him in the cellar of Danilo and Katerina's house, but he convinces Katerina to release him.

A group of Poles, organized by the sorcerer, come to take Danilo's land, but they are struck down one by one by him and his fellow Cossacks. At the end of the battle, the sorcerer shoots Danilo dead from behind a tree. Katerina has a dream about her son being killed, wakes up from the nightmare, and finds the baby dead in its cradle.

Katerina turns mad until a traveler stops at her house one day and appears to bring her back to sanity. But when he claims that Danilo once told him to marry her should Danilo die, Katerina recognizes him as the sorcerer and tries to stab him, but he gets hold of the knife, kills her and flees on horseback.

A miracle happens: both the Crimea and the Carpathians become visible from Kiev. As clouds clear off towering Mount Kriváň, the sorcerer sees a hulking knight with a boy on a horse riding down its slopes. He pleads with a starets at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves to help him, but they will not, for the sorcerer is already damned, so the sorcerer kills the starets. The knight catches up with the sorcerer and casts him into an abyss where corpses of his ancestors await to eternally gnaw on his body.

Urchin (film)

''Urchin'' is the story of a child who lives in Scum City. When the Old Man came to Scum City, a homeless camp in the Manhattan tunnels, his story seemed wild. He was from a kingdom deep within the earth, he said, and was sent to find the five nobles who got lost up here. He had a map that would lead him and his followers back to this paradise, and a blue crystal called The Blessing, that when smoked granted the clarity and vision needed to complete great tasks.

Some believed. They were allowed to stay.

The Kid believes. Abused and tormented, he escaped the city shelter and fled to the streets, where he survived by wit and blood until he found Scum City. He will fulfil the Old Man's prophecy; he will get to paradise.

But someone else believes. The Old Man had a bodyguard once, a powerful little man called Goliath whose lungs and mind are rotting away. In his dementia he has committed to the ritual murder of innocents and the capture of the map held fast by the Old Man.

This is the story of a child trapped in a world of violence, degradation, wonder, and discovery. As he battles the evils of the street to save the Old Man and the future of Scum City he meets Julia, a young girl in need of protection. He struggles to decipher the true motives of the Old Man and Goliath, while safeguarding Julia and the map that leads to Paradise.

Working Girls (1986 film)

Molly, a Yale graduate in her late-twenties living New York City, works in a Manhattan brothel to support herself and her girlfriend, Diane. Dawn, a college student, and aspiring boutique owner, Gina, also work in the brothel, entertaining various male clients while Lucy, the brothel madam, is out shopping. In Lucy's absence, the three women covertly misrepresent their sessions in the books to keep more of the money. Jerry, a regular client and middle-aged construction foreman, engages in a threesome with Molly and Gina. Gina gives him a prostate massage before he engages in aggressive sex with her.

John, another regular client, nervously enters the brothel, but leaves in a rush before having sex with any of the women. Later, Gina tells Molly that she recently broke up with her boyfriend; although he knew about her work and apparently did not mind, Gina wondered how he could love her given her occupation. Molly subsequently confesses to Gina that Diane does not know she is a sex worker. Fred, another client, visits Molly to engage in a sexual roleplay fantasy in which she pretends to be blind.

Lucy returns from her shopping trip, and chastises the women for smoking weed inside the brothel and not keeping the common area tidy. She then proceeds to flaunt the expensive clothing she has purchased for a ski trip. Robert, a young financial advisor, and Joseph, an older attorney, both enter the brothel to meet with the women. Lucy engages in discussion with Robert about what to do with her supply of gold.

Molly goes to have sex with Joseph, and is preemptively warned by Lucy that Joseph likes "light" BDSM, which she typically does not allow the girls to engage in, but makes an exception for Joseph. Miles, Lucy's boyfriend, visits the brothel, and is introduced to several of the girls along with a number of other clients. Debbie, a new employee at the brothel, is casually told by Lucy to not be upset should she make less than the other girls, as she is African American and the brothel's clientele tend to prefer white women.

Molly is sent to run errands to pick up a number of items from a drugstore for the girls in the brothel. After, Lucy demands that Molly work overtime that night. Molly meets with Neil, a shy teacher and regular client who gifts her one of his shirts she had previously complimented him on. Despite their transactional sex, Molly and Neil appear to have a platonic friendship, as Molly tries to help coach him on how to treat the women he goes on dates with. During the night shift, Molly again engages in a threesome with a male client and Mary, a new hire who lacks confidence and is uncomfortable with the profession. Lucy angrily returns to the brothel after finding that the phone lines were left on hold by another employee, April.

Paul, a musician client who wishes to see Molly outside of the brothel, visits for an appointment with her. During their sexual encounter, Paul belittles Molly, calling her a whore. The encounter upsets Molly, and she asks Lucy if she can leave, but Lucy informs her she has already made another appointment for Molly with another regular, Elliot, a wealthy fine furniture dealer. During a subsequent staff meeting, Lucy chastises Mary for talking to her child on the phone during a family emergency, in front of clients. Molly and Elliot have sex, and he offers to provide her with enough money to leave the brothel if she should meet him in public. Molly keeps his business card, and after her shift ends, she informs Lucy she is quitting the brothel.

Human Traces

Tracing the intertwined lives of Doctors Thomas Midwinter, who is English, and Jacques Rebière, from Brittany, France, ''Human Traces'' explores the development of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the late 19th century, by way of excursions into first alienism then metaphysics, human evolution and neuroscience, before the search for what it means to be human takes us into a brief foray into the First World War. Central to the plot is the theory of bicameral mentality.

Whilst some have criticised ''Human Traces'' as excessively expository, detailed and didactic, it has also been considered wide-ranging, ambitious and well written. It has enjoyed commercial success, having been a bestseller in the United Kingdom.

Faulks himself says of his novel:

'Human Traces was a Sisyphean task. After spending five years in libraries reading up on madness, psychiatry and psychoanalysis (my office had charts and timelines and things plastered all over the walls), the act of finishing it felt like a bereavement.

Sandkings (novelette)

Simon Kress, a wealthy playboy on the planet Baldur, loves to collect dangerous, exotic animals. When most of his pets die after being left alone during a long business trip, he ventures into the city to find replacements. He is unsatisfied by the offerings in the stores he has patronized in the past, but eventually he comes across a mysterious new establishment called Wo & Shade.

Inside, he meets one of the owners, Jala Wo. She shows him a terrarium filled with four colonies of creatures called sandkings. Each colony consists of a large female called the maw, and numerous insect-like mobiles. The maw is immobile, but controls the mobiles through telepathy. The mobiles hunt, forage, and build, and bring food back to the maw, which digests it and passes nutrients on to the mobiles. Each colony has constructed a castle out of sand around the maw, and the creatures fight coordinated wars and battles with one another. Wo also shows Kress how she has beamed a hologram of herself into the tank, and how the sandkings have decorated their castles with her likeness. Kress is mildly intrigued, but disappointed at the small size of the creatures. Wo assures him that they will grow to fill whatever environment they are kept in. Kress then agrees to purchase them. Wo assures him that they are easy to care for, and will eat anything.

Kress observes the installation of his sandkings and watches his four colonies (colored white, black, red, and orange) begin to build their castles. There is little intrigue or fighting, however, so a bored Kress begins to starve them. After that, they consistently war over the food he does provide. He also beams a hologram of his face, and they begin to decorate their castles appropriately.

After a time, Kress invites his friends, including Wo, to view a war fought by his new pets. The guests are suitably impressed, but Jala Wo worries that he is not feeding the sandkings adequately. She assures him that if they are kept comfortable, they will engage in intrigue and wars that are endlessly more entertaining than if they are made to squabble over food. Kress dismisses her complaints and resolves not to invite her any more. Cath m'Lane, a former lover, leaves in disgust.

Kress throws a series of parties and takes bets on the outcome of the sandking battles. At one, a guest brings a dangerous alien creature and suggests pitting it against the sandkings. The sandkings quickly dispatch it. This begins a series of matches: the sandkings emerge victorious in all of them.

Eventually, Kress learns that Cath has reported the sandkings to the animal control authorities. After bribing the authorities, he then films himself feeding a puppy to the sandkings and sends the footage to her. As he goes to bed, he notices his face on the castles has become twisted and sinister. Outraged, he pokes a sword into the white maw, injuring it. His intention of punishing the other maws is cut short when a sandking mobile escapes the tank. Horrified, he crushes it beneath his heel and re-seals the tank, vowing never to open it again. He then goes to bed.

Cath arrives the next day with a sledgehammer, and tries to smash the sandkings' terrarium. Trying frantically to stop her, Kress stabs her with a sword. In dying, she finally breaks the plastic, releasing the sandkings. Kress flees the house in a panic. By the time he returns, the sandkings have taken over: the black and red have built castles in the garden, while the whites have taken over the basement. He is unable to find the oranges. Freed from their container, the sandkings grow larger. After getting rid of Cath's vehicle and recovering the footage, Kress chops up Cath's body into digestible pieces to appease the sandkings. Over time, a panicked Kress empties his pantry while trying to get rid of the sandkings. Kress tries to exterminate them himself, then hires black market assassins to assist him, but he is only able to destroy the blacks and the reds, and the whites trap him in the house. He then invites several guests and locks them in the basement, where the sandkings devour them.

The next morning, the mobiles are comatose. Kress finally decides to contact Wo, who explains that as the sandkings grow larger, the maw becomes more intelligent, and eventually reaches sentience. At that point the mobiles mature into their final instar, which varies based on what form the maw believes is suitable, but is always equipped with opposable thumbs and the ability to manipulate technology. She reveals that her partner, Shade, is a mature sandking himself. Because of Kress's mistreatment, however, the white maw is unstable and dangerous. Wo tells Kress to flee, and assures him that she will take care of the sandkings.

Kress runs into the wilderness around his estate in a blind panic, trying to follow Wo's directions for a pickup. While walking in the desert, he decides to hire an assassin to kill Wo and Shade after the problem is resolved, but as he thinks about this, he realizes that either he has become lost in the desert or that Wo and Shade were eaten by the sandkings. After traveling all day without food or drink, he finally comes across a house, with children playing outside. Thinking he has found salvation, he calls out to them. As he comes closer, however, he realizes that he has reached the castle of the mature orange sandkings. As they surround him and drag him to the waiting mouth of the maw, he screams; all of them have his face.

Atomic Rulers of the World

The story involves the superhero Starman (Super Giant in Japan) who is sent by the Emerald Planet to protect Earth from the nuclear holocaust threatened by the country of Metropol.

Sonny's Blues

"Sonny's Blues" is a story written in the first-person singular narrative style. The story opens with the unnamed narrator reading about a heroin bust resulting in the arrest of a man named Sonny, his brother. The narrator goes about his day as an algebra teacher at a high school in Harlem, but begins to ponder Sonny's fate and worry about the boys in his class. After school, he meets a friend of Sonny, who laments Sonny will struggle with loneliness even after his detox and release.

After the narrator's daughter Grace dies of polio, he decides to reach out to Sonny, who is in rehab after the bust. The narrator remembers leaving for the war, leaving Sonny with his wife Isabel and her parents. Sonny decides to play the piano, and his passion is obsessive. Once Isabel's parents find out that Sonny has not been attending school, he leaves their house, drops out of school, and joins the Navy.

Sonny returns from the war. Their relationship sours, as the narrator intermittently fights with Sonny.

Back in the present, the narrator reveals that Grace's death has caused him to reflect on his role as an older brother, surmising that his absence impaired Sonny's personal growth. The narrator resolves to reconcile with Sonny.

While Isabel takes her children to see their grandparents, the narrator contemplates searching Sonny's room. He changes his mind, however, when he sees Sonny in a revival meeting in the street below his apartment, where a woman sings with a tambourine alongside her brother and sister, and enraptures the audience.

Some time later, Sonny invites the narrator to watch him play in Greenwich Village. The narrator begrudgingly agrees to go. Sonny explains his heroin addiction in vague analogies. The woman's performance reminded him of the rush he got using heroin, equating it to a need to feel in control. The narrator asks Sonny if he has to feel like that to play. Sonny answers that some people do. The narrator then asks Sonny if it is worth killing himself just to try to escape suffering. Sonny replies that he will not die faster than anyone else trying not to suffer. Sonny reveals that the reason he wanted to leave Harlem was to escape the drugs.

The brothers go to the jazz club in Greenwich Village. The narrator realizes how revered Sonny is there as he hears him play. In the beginning, Sonny falters, as he has not played for over a year, but his playing eventually proves to be brilliant and he wins over the narrator and everyone in the club. The narrator sends a cup of Scotch and milk up to the piano for Sonny and the two share a brief moment of bonding. The narrator finally understands it is through music that Sonny is able to turn his suffering into something worthwhile.

Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt

In the story, Ivan Shponka is a young man who is not very bright but attends to his affairs better than anyone. He was made as the monitor in his class when young though there were some much better than he, and won the affection of one of the most feared teachers at school. He finally finishes the second class (sixth grade approximately) at fifteen, and goes on to the military after two more years of school, retiring as a lieutenant.

He gets a letter from his aunt that he needs to come home to become master of his farm and sets off for Gadyach. On the way, at an inn, he meets the fat landowner Grigory Grigoriviech, who says he lives near Ivan’s farm and asks him to come visit when he gets there. The man is pushy and frequently orders around his Cossack servant boy. When Ivan arrives there he finds his aunt in incredible health, almost so man-like that she is hardly a woman. He begins to take over some of the duties of the farm.

Gogol’s descriptions of the scenery here are very rich and beautiful and the mowing segment seems to have likely influenced Tolstoy while writing Anna Karenina (also including a mowing scene with Levin that is strikingly similar). Ivan learns from his aunt that nearby are rightfully his, being held by Grigory. He goes to visit him but the man denies the existence of a will written by his father detailing the matter, so they have dinner and Ivan meets his daughters. When he tells his aunt of the one daughter, she becomes obsessed about him marrying her and his chores begin to decline somewhat.

They visit there together but Ivan says little to her when alone other than mentioning the house flies during the time of year. When he goes home, that night, he has a terrible nightmare about marriage and Gogol gives the reader some truly modern scenes that display his ability to portray the grotesque. A shopkeeper, for example, is selling “wives” as fabric and cuts one off for Ivan to wear. The story ends here mentioning a “next chapter” that does not exist.

A Bewitched Place

Foma's grandfather takes care of melons and spends most of his time at a shanty nearby, taking pleasure in groups of wagons that come by with various items. One day, while discussing matters with some passing wagoneers, his grandfather decides to outdo Foma and his friend at dancing. He does quite well until he reaches a spot in the garden where he cannot seem to move and his legs stiffen up. He curses the devil, and tries his luck again.

Suddenly he is transported to a different area that seems to be the local priest's garden. He comes up to a gravestone that is shimmering, and marks it with a stick believing there to be treasure below somewhere. When he comes home he won't discuss what happened and ventures out the next day to find the spot. When he gets to the priest's garden, he cannot spot the gravestone above the buried treasure and he curses the devil again for tricking him.

The next day, Foma's grandfather explores the place where he could not dance the day before and finds that this spot is capable of magically transporting him to the cemetery where the grave is marked. He digs and finds a cauldron, while being mocked by a bird, a sheep and a bear, that, in a horrifying manner, repeat what he says. After he finds the treasure, the devil tries to terrify him again by making it appear as though he was below a precipice ready to come down on him with a monstrous head peeping from behind it. He is not frightened though and takes the cauldron back home.

His wife, thinking the boys are behind it as it comes towards her, throws dirty dishwater behind it, covering him with melon waste. He tells them what he found but when he opens the cauldron finds filth and from that day forward never trusts the devil again and crosses himself whenever he comes to a spot said to have something wrong with it. He fences off the area where he couldn't dance and has everyone throw all the garbage and weeds they collect on the spot.

The Amen Corner

The play addresses themes of the role of a church in an African American family and the effect of a poverty born of racial prejudice on an African-American community.

''The Amen Corner'' takes place in two settings: a ‘‘corner’’ church in Harlem and the apartment dwelling of Margaret Alexander, the church pastor, and of her son, David, and sister Odessa. After giving a fiery Sunday morning sermon, Margaret is confronted by the unexpected arrival of her long-estranged husband, Luke, who collapses from illness shortly thereafter. Their son, David, along with several elders of the congregation, learn from Luke that, while Margaret had led everyone to believe that he had abandoned her with their son years ago, it was in fact Margaret who had left a dysfunctional Luke and pursued a religious life. This information precipitates confrontations between Margaret and her son, her congregation, and her estranged husband, regarding what they perceive as the hypocritical nature of her religious convictions, and the breakup of her family.

After an important conversation with his dying father, David informs Margaret that he is leaving home to pursue his calling as a jazz musician. On his deathbed, Luke declares to Margaret that he has always loved her, and that she should not have left him. Finally, Margaret’s congregation decides to oust her, based on their perception that she unjustly ruined her own family in the name of religion. Only after losing her son, her husband, and her congregation, does Margaret finally realize that she should not have used religion as an excuse to escape the struggles of life and love, but that ‘"To love the Lord is to love all His children—all of them, everyone!—and suffer with them and rejoice with them and never count the cost!’"

Flight on Titan

Tim and Diane Vick are two New Yorkers left impoverished by the 2142 collapse of the Planetary Trading Corporation. Rather than sit and wait for their money to run out, they decide to travel to Titan for a year to prospect for gems. Six months into their stay on Titan, they have succeeded in acquiring eighteen flame-orchids, which will make them wealthy on Earth, assuming they survive to reach Earth.

Every fifteen years, Saturn eclipses the sun, and Titan spends seventy-two hours in darkness. Nine months into the Vicks' stay, four Titanian days before the eclipse is due, an ice mountain near the Vicks' shack collapses. The Vicks escape the destruction of their shack, but find themselves stranded a hundred miles from the main human settlement on Titan, the United States-ran Nivia, otherwise known as the City of Snow, on the far side of the Mountains of the Damned. Tim Vick decides that they should try to reach Nivia, since the wind recently shifted and will be at their backs for the next eight days.

Three days into their trek, Diane collapses. In desperation, Tim drags her into an ice-ant nest. The air in the nest is above freezing, and the ice-ants ignore them since they find the Vicks' foam-rubber clothing inedible. Tim wakes the next morning to find that the ice-ants have eaten away the leather bag holding their flame-orchids, and all but one of them have been washed away into the depths of the subterranean ice-ant hive. The eclipse slowly begins, and when the sun sets that night, Tim knows he won't see it again for four days. The temperature drops past a hundred below that night, and only rises to seventy below the next day.

The Vicks manage to find two small ice-ant nests to spend the next night in, and remain there through the next day and night. The next day's journey brings them into the Mountains of the Damned. When the temperature drops to 140 below zero, they take shelter in a mountain cave. There they find themselves facing a Titanian threadworm. Tim is almost lulled to sleep by its hypnotic buzzing, but Diane wakes him, and he shoots it. They block the entrance to a threadworm nest and Diane falls asleep. Tim takes out their last flame-orchid and finds it shattered. Angrily he pounds it into dust with a rock.

When morning comes, they prepare to leave, when Diane notices the fragments of the flame-orchid. During the night, each one had grown, until they now have fifty the size of the original. They gather them up, and Tim wraps up some of the rock dust from the cave floor for later analysis. The two resume climbing, but they are still a mile below the summit when the wind dies, and a thousand feet below when the wind starts blowing in their faces. They find themselves being pushed back down the face of the mountain, and pass out. Tim awakens to find the two of them in a hollow a quarter mile below the summit. He resumes climbing, dragging the unconscious Diane with him, until he passes the summit and starts down the far side, with the lights of Nivia visible in the foothills below. Despite a severe bashing from the wind, near unconsciousness and severe frostbite, Tim reaches the settlement in time to save himself and his wife. The Vicks are now rich from the fragments of the smashed, priceless flame-orchid that have all grown to the size of the original.

Meet Me in St. Louis (musical)

The musical opens in the summer of 1903. The family is going about their daily businesses – Tootie is playing with her dolls, Agnes is practicing her stilt walking, Esther is playing tennis, Rose is relaxing, Lon received his Princeton catalog in the mail, Mrs. Smith and Katie, their maid, went shopping, Grandpa is playing with Agnes, and Mr. Smith was at work ("Opening" / "Meet Me in St. Louis"). Upon request from Esther, Katie asks Mrs. Smith if they could have dinner an hour earlier because her sister is having trouble with her husband. We soon learn that the real reason is that Warren Sheffield, a Yale scholar and heir to a grand fortune, is calling Rose long-distance at 6:30, when they usually eat dinner. Esther was trying to get dinner to be an hour earlier so the family would be out of the room when he called. Soon Rose enters and tells Esther that John Truitt, their neighbor and the boy that Esther has a crush on, is outside with his friend. They pretend to want to go to the pool, and try to attract the boys' attention. However, Agnes enters looking for her cat, and John leaves, causing Esther to lament about how John Truitt never notices her ("The Boy Next Door").

A little later that day, Mr. Smith comes home in a bad mood, because he lost his case. He refuses to eat an hour earlier and storms offstage to go take his cool bath. Meanwhile, Tootie and Agnes begin to fight over a doll, causing the older siblings to have to break them up and remind them that they're all friends (Whenever I'm With You). Everyone exits except for Ester and Mrs. Smith. Esther asks if she is too young to fall in love, and her mother is shocked by the question. She proceeds to tell of how she fell in love with Mr. Smith ("You'll Hear a Bell").

Dinner is approaching, and by now everyone in the family knows about Warren's telephone call except for Mr. Smith. When he joins the family at the dinner table, everyone gulps down their food so they can leave before Warren calls. Unfortunately, they are not fast enough, and the telephone rings. Mr. Smith answers, but is confused when the operators tell him that someone is calling from New York. He hangs up, and Esther accidentally tells him everything out of anger. He soon figures out that he was the only one who didn't know about the call, and tries to put his foot down, but when the phone rings again he tells Rose to answer it. Her phone call turns out to be less than successful, because he was only calling to ask how she was, and he said if his parents knew he was calling, they would kill him. Katie tries to lighten the mood ("Meet Me in St. Louis" (Reprise)).

A few months later, we are at Lon's going-away party, right before he leaves for Princeton. Warren tries to apologize to Rose, but she refuses to accept ("Raving Beauty"). At the party, Esther is formally introduced to John Truitt, pretending not to know who he is. She takes his hat and hides it in the piano. The guests then participate in a square dance called by Lon and Warren ("Skip to My Lou"). Agnes and Tootie have crept to the landing to see what was going on, and after being caught, perform a dance they do with Esther ("Under the Bamboo Tree"). Afterwards the guests leave, but Esther asks John if he would like to come with them to the Fairgrounds on Friday. He agrees, and then she asks him if he will help her turn off the lights, because she's afraid of the dark ("Over the Bannister"). He leaves, leaving Esther slightly disappointed.

On Friday, they get on the trolley to the fairgrounds, where John Truitt just barely makes it on ("The Trolley Song").

Act II opens on Halloween, where Tootie and Agnes are getting ready to go trick or treating. After they leave, Katie asks the older sisters why they won't go out to the Halloween Social. They both respond that men are too bothersome and they'd rather not. Katie gives them some advice ("Touch of the Irish"). Immediately following the number, a scream is heard offstage. Tootie comes in with a bloody lip, saying John Truitt hit her. When he comes by to ask if she's alright, Esther beats him up for hurting her little sister. Agnes enters soon after, telling what happened. They stuffed one of Katie's dresses so it looked like a body, then put it on the trolley tracks so when the motorman had to put on the brakes, the trolley would come off the tracks. Tootie then reveals that it was not John who hurt her, but she fell. Esther is ashamed and goes to apologize to John. He forgives her ("The Boy Next Door" (Reprise)).

Mr. Smith comes home and breaks the news to the family that they are moving to New York. He thought the family would be happy, but they all are shocked and upset. He tries to convince them that it will be fun, but it doesn't work ("A Day in New York"). They all exit, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Smith alone. Mrs. Smith tries to comfort him, reminding him that as long as they are together, they can be happy ("You'll Hear a Bell" (Reprise) / "Wasn't It Fun").

Now it is winter and their last Christmas in St. Louis is fast approaching. Both Rose and Warren are left without dates. Rose didn't respond to Warren's proposal to the dance, so he decided to go with Lucille Ballard who is Lon's girlfriend. Esther and Katie persuade them to go with each other, and Rose and Esther make a plan to fill out Lucille's dance card with the worst people imaginable. Unfortunately, John Truitt comes by and tells Esther that he can't take her to the dance because his tuxedo is locked up in the tailor's. Grandpa comes to the rescue, inviting Esther to the dance with him.

At the ball, Lucille suggests that Warren and Rose and she and Lon be partners for the evening. Esther doesn't realize that, and ends up taking Lucille's dances. Lon leads everyone in a dance he learned at college ("The Banjo"). John comes, in his tuxedo, after calling every Jones in St. Louis until he found who ran the shop. After the dance, John proposes to Esther, but she feels bad about it because he would have to give up going to college to be with her in New York ("You Are for Loving").

Esther enters the house to find Tootie sitting on the couch. She's upset about leaving St. Louis, and has been waiting for Santa to come so she can tell him that they're moving. Esther tries to convince Tootie that New York will be fun ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"). Mr. Smith sees how upset Tootie is and decides that they can't move to New York.

After hearing the good news, the family goes to the fair and everything works out well ("Trolley Song" (Reprise) / "Meet Me in St. Louis" (Reprise II) / "Finale").

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

One summer in the small, sleepy town of Granger, Texas, Toby Wilson's life changes. Toby (Jonathan Lipnicki) is a boy who lives with his parents, but his mother runs off to Nashville to try to become a singer. Later, he and his best friend Cal McKnight (Cody Linley) meet a fat sideshow freak named Zachary Beaver (Sasha Neulinger), who has no parents or friends. Zachary, "The Fattest Boy Ever," spends most of his time in a small, silver trailer; he is abandoned by his legal guardian, Paulie Rankin, so [Paulie] can look for new additions to their circus. Toby and Cal get to know him, and slowly become friends with him.

They cope with the loss of Cal's brother, Wayne, who was recruited for the Vietnam War and later dies, leaving Cal devastated. Toby had been sending letters to Wayne pretending to be Cal until Wayne is killed, and Toby finally tells him this which leads to a fight between the two. Meanwhile, Toby is in Zachary's trailer during the funeral and Cal shows up. He gives Toby all the money he ever borrowed and tells him his mom is never coming back, just like Wayne. Later, Toby gives a country girl he likes a necklace, which was his mother's, but she gives it back to him because she likes someone else and doesn't like Toby that way. Earlier, Toby got to dance with her after her boyfriend broke up with her. Cal and Toby become friends after Toby chases him down to a lake soon after. In the end, they help Zachary get baptized in Gossimer Lake with the alcoholic preacher/cook owner of a local cafe, Ferris, who once studied to be a priest; later Paulie returns with circus performers to retrieve him. Zachary leaves town with them, and Cal and Toby's friendship is reaffirmed.

Return to Innocence (film)

Erksine, a family man, is the director and chief of staff of New Horizons, a group home and counseling center for abused boys. Glen is a child psychologist who meets a new patient named Tommy Jackson, who is a victim of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

At New Horizons, Tommy's life finally seems to be coming together, until it is revealed that he is being molested by one of the counselors. Tommy accuses Erskine, the one he believes is responsible, and brings him to court in a high-profile child sex abuse scandal.

Monster Maker

Teenager Matt Banting wants to work with a famous but eccentric creature/fx (special effects) man, but he gets more than he bargained for when one of the creatures, the giant dragon-like Ultragorgon seems to come to life and takes Matt under his wing. Matt is forced to confront his inner monsters while working out his issues with his father.

A Token of My Extreme

Appliantology is shown as an insincere religion, which cooperates with a "malevolent totalitarian regime." This is an apparent reference to Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Joe, doubting his sanity, asks 'mystical advisor' L. Ron Hoover what his problem is and is told that he is "a latent appliance-fetishist." Joe asks if it is time "to come out of the closet," and is told that he should "go into the closet". "The Closet" turns out to be a bar in Los Angeles, where he can have "a lot of fun" achieving sexual gratification using machines. The "machines" at The Closet are household appliances with marital aids stuck all over them. Joe is informed that the best appliances speak foreign languages, which leads to the next song, "Stick It Out". This song derives from another piece called "Tush Tush Tush" from 1973.

SARS Wars

Thailand's leading health official, Public Health Minister Ratsuda, declares Thailand free of the SARS virus and that Thailand's superior technology and medical research will prevent the disease from occurring in the kingdom.

However, far away in Africa, there has been an outbreak of a mutant Type 4 strain of the SARS virus, which causes sufferers to turn into bloodthirsty zombies when they die. A hornet carrying the virus from Africa is hit by an airliner and lands in Thailand. It flies into the open window of a farang driving a Volvo and stings the man on the back of his neck. The man becomes patient zero in the outbreak of SARS 4. He returns to his apartment building and infects others in his building. Among the zombified creatures is a giant Burmese python named Albert.

Meanwhile, Catholic school girl Liu is kidnapped by a gang led by a transvestite named Yai, who dressed as a sexy woman in a bikini and used a furry as a distraction. Liu's father, an influential businessman, does not wish to involve the police, so he turns to his old friend Master Thep. Thep, injured from his last outing, assigns his top student swordsman, Khun Krabii, to rescue Liu.

Krabii soon finds himself at the building, where he finds Liu and attempts to rescue her, but is then stopped by Yai and his men, and then they encounter the zombies.

Master Thep, sensing his student needs help, goes to the building, just as the Health Ministry has sent in some men, and a woman doctor, Dr. Diana, who for some reason is wearing bondage gear under her biocontainment suit. She has a trial vaccine that she hopes will cure the zombies, but instead only makes their heads explode. Thep attempts to use his magic sword, but its batteries are low and it does not function.

Krabii and Liu have a romantic scene, and then they encounter a pregnant woman who has turned into a zombie and now her baby is zombie. The fetus flies out of her womb and bites Krabii, who turns into a zombie himself. He is so distraught that he tries to "kill" himself again by drinking household chemicals. In a stroke of luck, however, the combination of chemicals does not kill Krabii, but in fact cures him of the virus.

Liu is eaten by the giant zombie python, and Master Thep saves her, and also retrieves some batteries from the snake's stomach, which had been swallowed earlier, so his sword works again.

Then the building is set to explode – part of the containment plan by the health minister – but Master Thep has a remote control that stops the explosion.

It is revealed that Liu is in fact the transvestite Yai, wearing a rubber mask, meaning that Krabii lost his virginity to a man. An animated backstory reveals how Yai found Liu's clothes. Later it is revealed through another animated segment that Liu survived the struggle with Yai, and that she and Krabii will live happily ever after.

Twist (2003 film)

The plot of ''Oliver Twist'' is updated to the present day, and moved out of the London poor house onto the streets of a large North American city (in Donsky's film it was New York City, and this film it is Toronto). In addition, the tale is told not from Oliver's point of view, but rather that of Dodge (Nick Stahl). Oliver (Joshua Close) falls into the hands of down-and-out young men. Dodge takes Oliver under his wing and instructs him in the unforgiving arts of drug abuse and prostitution. Oliver develops a crush on Dodge and views him as his boyfriend, complicating their friendship. Dodge does not reciprocate his feelings, and reacts angrily to Oliver's kisses and other signs of affection. As Oliver's innocence dissolves, both young men confront their demons, and ultimately it is Dodge who finds he cannot escape his past. Dodge is found by his brother around the same time the young men's caretaker commits suicide, sending Dodge into a violent rage at the film's conclusion.

Recoil (video game)

Tanks patrol desolate city streets. Turrets and missile sites threaten the skies. Robot warriors carrying pulse rifles surround military installations. What's become of Earth? Machines have taken over. Corporate greed and rapid technological advancements have made humans pawns of their own creations. During the first fifteen years of the 21st century, Mega Corp began to dominate computer technology in both peacekeeping and war-fighting applications. As this giant churned out better and better technology for manufacturing and warfare, humans were relegated to service industries or to working as drones on PC terminals. Mega Corp became the largest employer in the United States. By 2010, every computer in America used Mega Corp software and was Internet-connected and monitored through the Mega Corp Network—antitrust suits be damned. Each day, Mega Corp would issue government-endorsed messages through the Network that broadcast pro-machine propaganda. The country was becoming brainwashed. In 2018, the wonders of artificial intelligence turned ugly in the hands of a few disillusioned Mega Corp programmers. Frustrated at being a part of such an ethically challenged corporation, these hacks altered coding in various Mega Corp products—turning certain robot and tank machinery into self-directed, man-killing machines. Today, May 2019, in a war-torn, machine-ravaged world, only a few freethinkers remain. Only a few outsiders have escaped the spell of the Network. Dr. Raines is the leader of a group of rebels called the Alliance. He and a few others have developed a computer program that gives the operator control over an experimental tank. You control this tank and must defeat these robot warriors.

Evening in Byzantium

Famous motion picture producer and writer Jesse Craig (Glenn Ford) attends a film festival on the French Riviera. He has not been making films for a few years and some in the film industry think he has retired, but he comes to the Riviera with a new screenplay to show it to his friend and film/literary agent Brian Murphy (Eddie Albert) who is attending the festival. The screenplay is a cautionary tale about terrorists attacking major cities in the United States using hijacked commercial airliners containing nuclear bombs as the attack vehicles. No one knows the content of the script or its author who Craig claims is a new writer by the name of Malcolm Hart.

Bret Easton (Vince Edwards) is a popular American film actor, director and producer who lives and makes films in Europe. His most recent film is about a revolution and uprising in a third world country in which he portrays the leader of the revolutionaries in the film. He secretly arranges to get a copy of Craig's script by sending several women to Murphy's hotel suite. While Murphy is otherwise occupied one of the women takes the script downstairs to the copier machine in the hotel offices.

Craig meets a former love, Constance Dobson (Shirley Jones) and they decide to travel into the countryside together to a small inn. Meanwhile, Easton has read Craig's script at his Riviera mansion and is deeply troubled. His underling, Fabricio (Gregory Sierra) asks him what he wishes to be done. Easton replies, "We'll have to kill Mr. Craig." Later that evening, Fabricio secretly enters Craig's room at the inn where Craig and Constance are staying and plants a bomb among Craig's clothing. The bomb is a string of plastic explosives concealed within the belt of Craig's bathrobe. When the ends of the belt are drawn together it closes the circuit setting off the electrical detonator of the bomb. After Craig enters the room he goes to the bathroom to shower. Constance undresses to surprise Craig when he emerges from the bathroom. She puts on Craig's robe and unknowingly detonates the bomb when she ties the belt. The bomb blast kills Constance and injures Craig who is taken to a local hospital.

The police inform Craig that he was the intended target of the bomb and the type of bomb that was used is the trademark of an assassin who works for a terrorist group that has been staging attacks across Europe. Craig starts his own investigation in an attempt to avenge Constance's murder. He meets a reporter, Gail McKinnon (Erin Gray) who wants to interview him. She ends up assisting him with his inquiries. Craig also contacts an old friend who he had served with in the war, U.S. Air Force Major General Jerry Olson (Harry Guardino), who commands the nearby NATO Air Force Base, for help in gathering intelligence about this terrorist group.

After many plot twists and harrowing experiences Jesse and Gail uncover the fact that Bret Easton is one of the leaders of the terrorist group and the reason he tried to murder Jesse was that Jesse's screenplay, of which Jesse is the real author, comes very close to describing the terrorists' latest attack plan. Meanwhile, the terrorists have secretly taken control of three airliners and have landed them on remote and desolate airfields that have been prepared in advance to off load and imprison the airliners' passengers and then quickly retrofit the planes to each transport and drop a nuclear bomb on three cities in the United States. These cities are Washington, D.C., New York City, and Miami, Florida.

Bombs have been planted on three flying commercial airliners and set to detonate in flight so the terrorist-controlled jets can impersonate the legitimate commercial flights. Jesse Craig and Gail confront Easton on Easton's yacht which is at sea several miles off the coast. Easton confirms Craig's suspicions while boasting about his grand plans and then tries to murder him. A violent brawl ensues and Easton tries to stab Craig with a small sharpened boat anchor. Craig gets a hold of a revolver that he had taken off a dead terrorist before he boarded the yacht and shoots Easton dead.

Jesse and Gail use the radio-telephone on the yacht to contact General Olson. It turns out that General Olsen is flying on one of the targeted jetliners and he is onboard speaking with Jesse via cockpit radio when the bomb onboard explodes. Realizing that General Olson is dead, Jesse contacts General Olson's executive officer at the NATO base and informs him of events. The Air Force is able to identify and shoot down the three terrorist controlled airliners just minutes before their attack runs on the cities take place.

An Almost Perfect Affair

Hal Raymond, a young tyro filmmaker fresh from graduate school, arrives in France to attend the Cannes Film Festival, where he hopes to sell a movie he has made about the life and times of famed murderer Gary Gilmore. Unbeknown to him, he has failed to observe the proper bureaucratic procedures when bringing his film reels into the country, which forces customs officials at Nice Airport to seize them until further notice. In another queue at the airport is Maria Barone, a glamorous former actress and the wife of leading Italian film producer Federico 'Freddie' Barone. Maria's dog Mortimer is also retained at customs, after she is found to have concealed the animal in her hand luggage.

The following day, Hal returns to the airport to attend an interview at the customs agency with Lt. Montand, who tells him that the reels will not be released until the film censor has viewed them, which may not happen for another month. Leaving the office in a fury, Hal bumps into Maria, who has just been reunited with her dog. Informing her of his plight, she encourages him to persevere. The following day, Hal again encounters Maria in the lobby of the Hotel Carlton and invites her to lunch. Charmed by the young man's attention, Maria reckons that she can persuade her husband to contact the customs authorities and intervene on Hal's behalf. She then takes Hal to meet Freddie, who graciously agrees to phone the airport immediately.

In gratitude, Hal asks them both along to a party in Nice being hosted by his friend, Andrew Jackson – a sardonic director-producer, in town to publicise his own blaxploitation film. Although a visibly flustered Maria declines the invitation, when the party is in full swing later that evening she suddenly turns up unannounced. Hal and Maria dance and talk, later going back to Hal's room at the local Novotel to make love. Lying in bed afterwards, Maria admits that this is the first time she has cheated on her spouse. Unimpressed by Hal's spartan accommodation, back in Cannes the next day she arranges to meet him at the Palm Beach casino, where she wins big at craps – enough money for her to book Hal into a fancy boutique hotel further along the coast. As they are entering the hotel Hal spies Montand sitting at a nearby restaurant, who delivers the good news that the censor will now view his film.

Hal and Maria then enjoy a blissful day out in the country, at the end of which he complains about not being able to spend an entire night with her. Although distressed at having to deceive her husband, Maria asks Freddie if she can spend two days away in Paris prior to his film's gala premiere – a request to which the latter agrees without complaint. Hal, meanwhile, having already found that Jackson has muscled in on his film and taken control of its publicity campaign – including changing the title from the bland "Choice of Ending" to the more lurid "Shoot Me Before I Kill Again" – now has to endure the censor's screening before he and Maria can meet for their planned few days together. After nervously introducing it to a seemingly nonplussed audience, Hal finds his film has inspired positive reactions – Jackson pronounces it "sensational", while Montand reports that the film can finally be brought into the country. But Maria, who is also in attendance, is much less enthusiastic about what she has seen, and upon being forced to reveal her true feelings in the car afterwards she and Hal have a row, causing him to petulantly abandon her and hitchhike alone back to Cannes.

Hal is overcome with remorse by the next morning and returns to the Carlton, where he is able to follow Maria's limousine as it heads to the Barone family yacht for an outing prior to Freddie's evening gala premiere. Pursuing her onto a speedboat, Hal manages to separate Maria from her companions and drives the boat out into the middle of the bay, where it runs out of fuel. In an effort to prove his love, he throws his precious film reels into the water. Maria is unimpressed, however, pointing out that he still has the original 16mm negative, so the gesture means nothing. Only after Hal begrudgingly proclaims out loud that he loves her more than his film are the two reconciled. Eventually whisked away to attend the gala premiere by her security detail, Maria leaves Hal to make his own way back to the shore. Realising that Maria is set to leave the festival for good after the premiere is over, once on land Hal persuades Jackson to drive him to the airport. There he stops Maria and Freddie before they board their private jet. Maria explains that, although she loves him, she needs someone who considers her "more important than anything". After the jet has taken off into the night sky, Jackson improves Hal's mood by informing him that his film has been included in a package deal, and hands him a contract to sign.

Downhill Racer

American downhill skier David Chappellet arrives in Wengen, Switzerland to join the U.S. ski team along with fellow newcomer D. K. Bryan. Both men were summoned by team coach Eugene Claire to replace Tommy Herb, one of his top skiers, who was recently injured during an FIS competition. Raised in the small town of Idaho Springs, Colorado, Chappellet is a loner focused only on becoming a skiing champion, and shows little interest in being a team player. After refusing to race at the Lauberhorn because of a late starting position, he makes his European skiing debut at the Arlberg-Kandahar in Austria, where he finishes in an impressive fourth position. In the final race of the season at the Hahnenkamm-Rennen in Kitzbühel, Austria, he crashes.

That summer, Chappellet joins the team in Oregon for offseason training. He visits his father at his home in Idaho Springs, but they have little to say to one another. Chappellet drives into town and picks up an old girlfriend, but after they make love in the back seat of his father's old Chevrolet, he shows little interest in the girl's feelings. Later, when his father asks him why he is wasting his life on skiing, Chappellet reveals that he is racing as an amateur to become an Olympic champion. His father observes, "The world's full of 'em."

Back in France that winter, Chappellet wins the Grand Prix de Megève in France and soon attracts the attention of Machet, a ski manufacturer who wants Chappellet to use his skis for the advertising value, but Chappellet is more interested in Machet's attractive assistant Carole Stahl. After a chance encounter at a bakery, he and Carole spend some time together. They meet up again in Wengen, ski the slopes together and eventually make love.

At Kitzbühel, Chappellet wins the Hahnenkamm, but his cockiness alienates his teammates and coach, who feel that he is only concerned about himself. The team's top racer Johnny Creech tells assistant coach Mayo, "He's never been for the team, and he never will be." Mayo responds, "Well it's not exactly a team sport, is it?" Chappellet finishes the season with several impressive victories, ensuring his place on next season's Olympic team.

During the offseason, Chappellet and Carole continue to see each other. At the start of the third season, he invites her to spend Christmas with him, but after waiting several days alone, he realizes that she is not coming. He travels to Zurich to Machet's office to find her, but learns that she is spending Christmas with her family. The next week, Chappellet sees Carole in Wengen and is annoyed that she did not call and that she is with another man. After a brief confrontation, he realizes that their relationship is over.

Two weeks before the Olympics, and after a day of training at Wengen, Chappellet challenges Creech to a one-on-one race, and the two take off to the bottom as the coaches look on in horror. On the way down, Chappellet forces Creech into the stone wall of a narrow-arched bridge (Jungfrau railway overpass ''Wasserstation''), and Creech barely escapes injury. The next day, during the Lauberhorn race, Creech is seriously injured during his run, leaving Chappellet as the team's best hope for an Olympic gold medal.

At the Winter Olympics, with Austrian champion Max Meier in first place, Chappellet performs one of his best runs, beating Meier's time and finishing in first place with all of the highly ranked racers having already run. However, an unheralded German skier in a later seed is turning in very fast split times. The fans fall quiet, and Chappellet takes notice of the German, watching nervously. As the German approaches the final schuss, he crashes, and Chappellet becomes an Olympic gold-medal champion. The German makes his way to the finish area, and Chappellet looks into his eyes briefly before being carried off in victory.

Smile (1975 film)

Big Bob Freelander is a used car dealer ,and the head judge of the Young American Miss Pageant held in Santa Rosa, California. Brenda DiCarlo is the pageant's Executive Director, and her husband Andy, is a resentful alcoholic. Andy is unhappy as he is about to become an exhausted rooster aging out of the local Jaycee chapter, which requires a humiliating ritual. Little Bob, Big Bob's son, conspires with his friends to photograph the contestants in various states of undress.

Wilson Shears, the pageant producer, clashes with Tommy French, a choreographer brought in from Hollywood, who is cynical and blunt.

Andy refuses to go along with the induction ceremony, which involves kissing the behind of a dead chicken. Brenda discovers him at home, apparently about to commit suicide with a gun. She tries to talk him out of it, and he decides she is the real problem and shoots her, wounding her. He is jailed, but she refuses to press charges and Andy is released. Big Bob tries to convince him to not move from town.

The show becomes more expensive than was anticipated, and Shears pressures French to remove a ramp, because it is taking up seating. This results in an injury to a contestant, and French agrees to reinstate the ramp and to make up the difference out of his fee.

The pageant concludes successfully, though the contestants that have been the focus of the film's attention do not win.

American Cowslip

Ethan Inglebrink (Ronnie Gene Blevens) is an agoraphobic heroin addict who lives in a homogeneous California town where nothing ever happens. A misfit, clad in a powder blue tux, he has convinced his poker buddies, and surrogate moms, Roe (Diane Ladd), Sandy (Cloris Leachman), and Lou Anne (Lin Shaye), that he is diabetic and his needles are for insulin, not heroin. His next-door neighbor is his landlord and former high school football coach Trevor O'Hart (Rip Torn), who wants nothing more than to kick Ethan out on the street. Complicating matters even further is that Ethan's older brother Todd (Val Kilmer), the local sheriff, is convinced that his brother can only be saved by an act of God, and recruits the family priest (Peter Falk) to get the job done. Meanwhile, as the Garden of the Year competition draws near, Ethan becomes convinced that he can take the $10,000 top prize and pay off his delinquent rent if he can just grow the perfect American Cowslip. Little does Ethan realize that salvation may lie not in the money he could win for growing a rare flower, but with the companionship and understanding offered by his 17-year-old neighbor Georgia (Hanna R. Hall), who longs to escape her abusive father (Bruce Dern).

Wild Poses

Otto Phocus (Franklin Pangborn) is a haughty photographer hellbent on taking a formal portrait of a terrified Spanky (George McFarland). The little guy has been told by the gang that Phocus plans to "shoot" him; thinking the camera is a cannon. This leads Spanky to avoid having his picture taken, and his habit of punching Phocus in the face with regularity.

Phocus serves as Spanky's foil in other ways as well. He tries to get Spanky to pose with an exaggerated sweet smile on his face; when Spanky sees Phocus' ridiculous grimace he turns to his Dad (Emerson Treacy) and says, "Hey Pop, do you see what I see?" Later, when Spanky's friends have filled the rubber shutter bulb with water, and Phocus squeezes it, squirting Spanky's Dad with water, his Mom (Gay Seabrook) tells Spanky, "That's how they take watercolor pictures." Finally, after having successfully taken Spanky's picture, Phocus discovers the gang exposed his photographic plates, rendering "all my lovely work for nothing!". Spanky responds to the photographers request for "one more bust" with a punch in the nose before his family leaves the studio in disgust.

Cop and a Half

Devon Butler (Norman D. Golden II) is an eight-year-old boy who lives in Tampa with his grandmother and dreams of being a cop. He watches police TV shows, knows police procedures and plays cops and robbers with his friend Ray (Sammy Hernandez). One day, while snooping around in a warehouse, he witnesses a murder. He goes to the police, who want the information but he refuses to give it unless they make him a cop. They place him in the care of veteran Detective Nick McKenna (Burt Reynolds), who dislikes children and the two team up in a comic series of events to find the killer and take down a drug kingpin who ordered the hit.

The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case

Laurel and Hardy are seated at a dockside where Stan is fishing. Ollie sees a notice in a newspaper which says one Ebeneezer Laurel has died and left a large estate. Parties interested in the estate should go to the Laurel mansion for the reading of the will. Stan can't remember if Ebeneezer is a relative or not but they decide to go to the mansion anyway. They arrive during a thunderstorm and discover that Ebeneezer had been murdered and that the police had placed the notice in the newspaper to draw all of the relatives together to find out who committed the crime.

Stan and Ollie are shown to a bedroom to sleep overnight, which is the room in which Ebeneezer was murdered. They hear a strange noise and in the darkness see a pair of eyes which turns out to be a cat. They then hear a scream and decide to investigate.

Meanwhile, the butler is calling all of the relatives to a study telling them they have a telephone call. After sitting in a chair and lifting the receiver, the lights go out, there is a scream and a sound like a door slamming; and the relative is never seen again. Stan and Ollie return to their bedroom and get into the bed but a bat has flown into their room and is under their covers, which causes them to panic and run downstairs.

All of the other relatives have now disappeared and the butler calls Stan and Ollie to take a telephone call in the study. Ollie sits in the chair to take the call; this time, however, the lights stay on and it is revealed that the chair is affixed to a trapdoor into which each of the other relatives vanished. Ollie falls through the trapdoor, but is saved due to his having become wedged in the chair. The murderer (a man dressed in drag) appears through a secret door with a knife. A fight ensues, but then Stan and Ollie both wake up from a dream, fighting over Stan's fishing line at the dockside and then falling into the water.

Mickey (1948 film)

The plotline involves a young tomboy named Mickey (Butler) with a beautiful singing voice, who is torn between singing and playing on her baseball team. Meanwhile, Mickey is trying to make her widowed father fall in love with her neighbor's aunt, Louise (Hervey), a woman who is helping Mickey try to be more ladylike so she can become her best friend's love interest.

Herod's Law

One night, a corrupt mayor enters his office, kills the night watchman, and steals as much money as possible, presumably to disappear with the town's coffers and start a new life elsewhere. He flees into the night, pursued by an angry mob of villagers, who catch him as he stumbles. He pleads with the mob to spare him, but they behead the former mayor out of anger. The next day, The Governor of the PRI party criticizes his Secretary, López, for his failure to keep the villagers in line after he hears about the death of the mayor. In order to save whatever positive reputation the party has, López assures The Governor that he will take care of the issue. After searching numerous candidates for the position of mayor, he and his assistant choose Juan Vargas, a petty and dim witted party member who work as the supervisor of the country's sanitation division. The assistant tracks down Vargas and tells him that López wanted to ask him a favor. Once Vargas arrives at The Secretary's office, he tells Vargas that he has been chosen to be the mayor of San Pedro de los Saguaros, which he immediately accepts and thanks López for giving him tremendous responsibility, a pin representing the party, and his trust. Vargas and his wife Gloria arrive at the town, believing that they are lost. He then asks a man for directions, where he reveals that they arrived at their destination. The man also turns out to be Carlos Pek, the secretary of Vargas. Even though the couple are appalled by the conditions of the town, they nevertheless decide to stay and make the most out of it. At first, the new mayor attempts to do good and genuinely cares about the town, but the villagers grew distrustful of outsiders and the majority of them do not speak Spanish (Pek informs Vargas that due to the previous mayor stealing things from the school, they were unable to pay the teacher and they have no money to repair the school). To make matters worse, he meets Doctor Morales, a former PAN candidate who is angry that he never won the position of mayor and criticizes Vargas for not solving the murder of a villager. He then angrily demands that Vargas shut down the brothel since that's where the murder occurred. He soon arrives at the brothel, where he meets Doña Lupe, the vicious and abusive owner. After attempting to reason with her and seeing that Vargas won't accept the bribe, she angrily tells him to leave and that he should talk with the priest as according to her, he runs the town. Vargas then goes to the church and talk to the priest. He charges Vargas for the prayer and tells him that he should bury the murder victim. When Vargas tells the priest that Doña Lupe told him to talk with the priest in order to resolve disputes, he tells Vargas that it's not in his area and leaves in order to resume work in the church. He then buries the body with the help of Pek, dismayed that he didn't solve the issue.

With no money to modernize the town, Gloria recommends that Vargas seeks financial aid from López. While driving to Mexico City, his car breaks down in the middle of the road. Not long after, he encounters Robert Smith, an American tourist who happens to be in the same area as Vargas. Smith offers to fix the engine for money due to it being a difficult job, which Vargas accepts (He only places a cap in a hole, fixing the problem. We can assume Smith believes that Vargas is very easy to swindle). Once Smith fixes the car, he asks for 100 dollars for "helping out a mexican friend". Vargas insists that he doesn't have money to pay him, but he tells Smith to go to the town and wait for him there, where he will get his payment. Smith accepts, but once Vargas leaves, he curses at him in English. Vargas then laughs, revealing that he outsmarted the American, likely never bothering to keep his promise. Once he arrives at The Capital, López tells Vargas that he can't give out money due to the funds being used for the campaign, but he gives a copy of the constitution of Mexico and a revolver to Vargas and tells him that since he's a politician, he can make the rules and he should use them to his advantage since in his eyes, the only law is Herod's law: literally translated: "either you get screwed or you get fucked" ("o te chingas o te jodes"). Taking his words to heart, Vargas returns to the town and begins using The Constitution in order to gain money for his projects. He then attempts to have Doña Lupe's brothel shut down, but after she begins to attack him, he accidentally shoots her in the leg, crippling her. He then runs away with her cursing at him. Not long after, Pek informs that Doña Lupe wants to talk with Vargas. Once she enters his office, Vargas tries to tell her to respect the laws, but she gives him a huge bribe so she could stay in business. Realizing that he can use this money for modernizing the town, he accepts it with glee. He begins counting the money in order to see if he has enough for fixing the town, but his path to corruption begins when Gloria tells him that he should spend the money on a dinner with the most important people of the town. Despite his reluctance, he accepts his wife's proposal. They begin to kiss until they hear a knock on the door. When Vargas opens the door, he is shocked to see Smith, the man who fixed his car, when he demands his payment. Vargas plays dumb and lets him inside so he can stay at their residence and assures Smith that he'll get his payment tomorrow.

The next day, Vargas and Smith make a deal where Smith would keep 50% of the profits if he helps Vargas with his projects. He then assures Smith that Mexicans always keep their word. At the dinner, Doctor Morales expresses his doubts about Vargas' supposed projects and tells the dinner party that he doesn't believe in his promises. In response, Vargas claims that will the help of Smith, they will bring electricity and prosperity to the town. The dinner party cheers and applauds him for his endeavors, much to the chagrin of Morales. Vargas is then seen raising a power line, where Morales mocks him for after it falls down. Vargas assures him that once completed, Morales will be impressed by his efforts. Gradually, Vargas begins to charge many taxes and imprisons the ones who either can't pay or refuse to cooperate. Vargas then arrives to the brothel in order to get his payments from Doña Lupe, but when she says that she has no money to pay him due to Vargas imprisoning her customers, Vargas works out a compromise where he would have sex with all of her employees. After the experience, he has sex with Gloria in the bathroom, with Smith calling Vargas a lucky dog when he hears noises from upstairs. While napping in his office, Doctor Morales and the priest arrive with Morales expressing disdain when the villagers tell him that Vargas was charging taxes with the threat of imprisonment if they don't comply. Morales then tells Vargas to either stop or that he will hear from him again before leaving. The priest then tells Vargas that he can help him with dealing with Morales if he helps him buy a car. Vargas pays the priest the difference and curses at him after he leaves. When Vargas returns to the brothel, Doña Lupe angrily informs him that their deal is over and summons Pancho, her bodyguard, to beat him up. She then humiliates Vargas by forcing him to act like a pig. When she had her fun, she tells Pancho to beat him up again. When he returns home, his wife asks him how he got his bruises and he tells her that he fell. While both Smith and Gloria are sleeping, Vargas leaves the house in order to get his revenge. He then finds the pair in a garden, where he kills Pancho by shooting his head. Doña Lupe pleads with him to spare her life, but Vargas kills her and kicks her now deceased corpse for insulting him and for being mean to him before dumping their bodies into a ditch. He then frames Filemón, the town drunk, by planting evidence when he's passed out. While he's sleeping, Gloria wakes him up, informing Vargas that she's aware of his affairs with the employees at the brothel. Vargas then realizes that his pin is not on his shirt and returns to the ditch in order to search for it, but to no avail. He arrives at the morgue, where he would find the bodies. Pek informs Vargas that they found the bodies this morning, but they have no suspects or leads. Vargas feigns his feeling for the pair and assures Pek that he won't stop until he finds out who's responsible for the murders.

In order to avoid arousing suspicion, he goes to Doña Lupe's funeral. Once the funeral is finished, the priest asks each person there to pay, but much to his disappointment, the employees inform him that their boss took everything from them. Vargas then shows his condolences for the employees while trying to hug them in a sexual manner. When he asks them when they can resume their relationship, the employees leave without saying a word. Once everyone leaves, Vargas urinates on Doña Lupe's grave in order to humiliate her as she did to him. He then talks with the bar tender of the town and offers him a chance to start another brothel, which he declines. In order to make it look like there is justice, Vargas accuses Morales for murdering Doña Lupe and Pancho since he has grudges against the former owner, but he vehemently denies his involvement. Gloria then tells her husband to apologize to Morales for accusing him, not because she feels that the doctor is innocent, but in order to prevent problems down the road. Vargas then goes to his house in order to apologize, but his wife tells him that he's not inside before having sex with him. Remembering the priest's offer to help, Vargas goes to him, where the priests says that Morales went to Mexico City in order to complain about Vargas. Vargas tells the priest to help him because if he doesn't, Vargas will lose his hold on the town and the priest won't be able to buy his car. The priest then replies that he can help him after charging him a payment. After paying him, Vargas finds out that Morales has been sexually abusing his servant for many years. With this information, Vargas gets the confession from the servant with Pek writing down her testimony, furthering his intent of getting rid of the doctor. Meanwhile, Morales is waiting in the capital in order to talk with López, but his assistant lies to him saying that he's too busy with meetings. Despite insisting that he was waiting for a very long time, he leaves. The assistant then returns to López, where he's waiting for The Governor to call him. Once López receives the call, he informs his assistant that his rival will become the candidate for the position of governor and is worried that they're finished.

Vargas then "tortures" Filemón for information, but he denies killing the pair. When Pek temporarily leaves, Vargas gets a forced confession from the drunk by squeezing his testicles. The scene then cuts to López talking with The Governor about the candidacy with The Governor telling his secretary to "fix it like the old days". Vargas is then seen driving Filemón to the capital in order to imprison him for the murder. It is then revealed that Filemón is aware that Vargas killed them since he saw his pin by the bodies and that he has it. Not wanting any witnesses to his crimes, he gets Filemón drunk and the two stop the car in order to urinate. With the drunk distracted, Vargas shoots him in the head, takes the pin, and dumps his body off the road before returning to the town. In Mexico City, López orders Tiburón and another hitman to deal with the candidate and if anything goes wrong, he will get them out of jail. After the two leave, his assistant expresses concern that the plan will backfire, but López insists that it's the only way to maintain power. At the bar, Vargas becomes drunk, expressing his remorse for killing the drunk with the employees of the brothel and the servant by his side. The women turn off the candles once Vargas falls asleep. The next day, Vargas, now sober, wakes up. He returns to his residence only to find his wife having an affair with Smith. Enraged, Vargas brutally beats up Gloria and holds Smith at gunpoint before Gloria knocks him out. She tells Smith to run while she deals with her husband. Once he regains consciousness, Gloria lies to him by saying that Smith forced her to have sex with him due to him not getting the payment that Vargas promised him. Knowing that she's not telling the truth and being aware of the flirting and sexual intimacy between the two, Vargas calls her a whore while beating her up again and dragging her to the interrogation chamber to chain her up. After the ordeal, Vargas sees the villagers starting a riot with Pek telling him that they are aware of the doctor's sexual abuse of his servant and they want to kill him. Vargas then enters his house and makes an ultimatum: Either he leaves and never comes back or he can spend a long time in prison. Morales and his wife leave the town. Now that his opponent is gone, he instructs Pek to change the laws to that favors the mayor. Not long after, all of the villagers line up with their animals in order to pay their taxes. When one of them says that he doesn't have anything to offer and to give him some time after the harvest, Vargas gets infuriated and orders Pek to throw him in jail. Pek, growing tired of Vargas' corruption, calls him the worst mayor and refuses to help Vargas enslave his people. Vargas holds Pek at gunpoint for embarrassing him and throws him in jail. Vargas then receives news that López is on the run after the police discovers his attempt to eliminate the candidate. He goes to talk with the priest, where he tells Vargas to forgive his wife, which he refuses to do. The priest then explains that some villagers are leaving due to Vargas' actions. Vargas then informs the priest that if he goes down, he's taking him with him as well before leaving. He then unchains his wife so she can cook for him. When Gloria finishes cooking the food, he believes that she tried to poison him and chains her up again.

Once exiting, Tiburón holds him at gunpoint and informs Vargas that López would like to have a word with him. While hearing Pek's complaints, López pretends to care about the troubles caused by Vargas and asks him to explain why the town has not improved. Vargas explained that although he tried his best to help the town, he realized that it was no use when there was no way to save it due to the multiple factors impeding his attempts. He also says that he changed the laws that would suit him the best. Despite López being impressed by Vargas' now ruthless personality and his actions, he demands that he gives him all the riches he has accumulated. He tried to lie to López, but he's aware of the wealth he has. When Vargas tells him that the money's in his residence, López sends Tiburón to escort him in order to prevent any escape. When they arrive at his residence, he finds that his wife has escaped and took all the money. She also left a note saying that she fled to The United States with Smith and that they will see Vargas in hell (It is implied that Smith rescued Gloria while her husband was with López and took the money in order to start a new life together). Angered and saddened by her betrayal, Vargas slits Tiburón's throat before going to López to tell him that the pair took all his money. Angered due to him thinking that Vargas is lying, López demands the money before Vargas points the revolver that he gave him at López's face. He tries to reason with Vargas before he shoots his leg, causing him to stumble. He then proceeds to tell López that he was getting in his way and that according to the advice López gave him earlier, there was no room for the two of them before killing him. Pek then runs away, horrified about the ordeal. Now angry about his misfortune, Vargas loads his revolver, saying that all women are whores and criticizing the mob that is trying to kill him for being savages, for not respecting the law, and for not appreciating his "help". Led by the priest and Pek, the mob begins to surround Vargas. Remembering the power line he had installed earlier, he climbs it in order to avoid the wrath of the villagers. Once on top, he apologizes for his mistakes while Pek orders the mob to topple the power line. Believing he is about to die, Vargas tries to plead with the mob to spare his life until the police that was pursuing López arrive and used their guns to dispel the mob. When the police ask for López's whereabouts, Vargas says that he didn't kill him and pleading for help before the screen goes black.

The next day, Jesus Carnales, the new mayor appointed by the PRI Party, arrives at the town in an eerie fashion where it is almost similar to how Vargas arrived at the town a few days before. When the new mayor asks Pek what happened with his predecessor, he simply says that he has no idea. In Vargas' former office seen at the beginning of the film, it is shown that the assistant of López has been demoted to being a supervisor responsible for sanitation. When as subordinate tells him that the truck broke down again, he tells him to call him "sir" and that he will help him once the speech on the radio is over. He then listens to it with dismay and disbelief. The film ends with Vargas, now a representative of the PRI party, making a speech before the Mexican congress and talking about how his party should stay in power, that they're here to assist the nation, and that López's attempts to eliminate the candidate were thwarted by his own hand. The Congress then applauds Vargas for his speech as the now corrupt man basks in their praise.

Summer Days

Setsuna Kiyoura is a high school student out of school for summer vacation, enjoying the break with family and peers. When her childhood friend Sekai is bedridden with mumps and unable to attend to her part-time waitressing job, Setsuna much to her chagrin, agrees to fill in for her. Though she finds the work almost thoroughly unpleasant, from the revealing uniforms to difficult customers, Setsuna manages to overcome the challenges of the job through the encouragement of friends, particularly that of Makoto Itōu, a classmate she likes.

### Setting

Set in the same universe as ''School Days'', ''Summer Days'' retells the story of the first game had it occurred during the midst of summer vacation instead of at school and from the perspective of another protagonist. The game takes place in a fictional, undisclosed prefecture of Japan that spans a range of cities, particularly a coastline called Haramihama, where the game's restaurant and center of activity, Radish, is established. As such ''Summer Days'' shares the same setting with a previous 0verflow game called ''Summer Radish Vaction!!'' as well as the same characters of Setsuna and Sekai's mothers.

Brodie's Law

On what appeared to be a routine assignment, Jack was paid to break into a high tech lab and steal a disc that contained a top-secret experiment. His contractor being the CEO and shareholder of the research company, Eugene Della Cruz. A third party gets wind of the job and everything goes horribly wrong. It was a set up. He escapes – barely alive.

This makes front-page news and Brodie suddenly becomes the most wanted man in Britain. He goes underground, seeking refuge away from the world and for the first time he fails to see a way out. Things come apart fast as his son is kidnapped and he is framed for his ex-wife's murder. He begins to lose his sense of self-belief and everything Brodie ever valued is gone. Forced to live like an animal, his hideout becomes his new home, only stepping out of the shadows under the cover of darkness.

In a bid to fight back, Brodie does whatever it takes to find his son, clear his name and seek his revenge. With the help of Tomokai Yoshida a genetic scientist, Brodie from the bleakest point of his life being the countries public enemy finds a way to turn the tables. Using the disc he stole which contained the blue print for a process called Psycho Metamorphosis or PM13, a compound that stimulates a human's latent ability to morph from one human likeness to another, male or female. Brodie realizes the power that comes with anonymity, without a fixed identity the law cannot track him. The compound was only a prototype and so is inherently unstable. Brodie never knows how long it will work and with each metamorphosis the process takes its toll. His victims once touched are left in a coma, helpless until their identity is returned. In essence Brodie becomes a soul reaper. The process of transformation is far from clean and Brodie partially retains the soul of each person he touches. Each journey into the body of another takes Brodie further into the darker recesses of the human mind. Brodie is no longer alone; with each passing day, the voices within grow louder.

Old MacDonald Duck

Donald Duck works as a farmer on a farm. He is disturbed by a fly when he tries to milk his cow Clementine.

A Flame in Hali

### Prologue

Years prior to the start of the book, the disgraced and forgotten ''larenzu'', Rumail Deslucido, dies in a remote village. In the last moments of his life, he overshadows (takes over the mind of) his son, Eduin, hoping to wreak his final revenge on the Hastur family.

### Book One

Eduin MacEarn, former ''laranzu'' of Arilinn, now lives in drunken stupor in the gutters of Thendara. Mentally overshadowed at the death of his deranged ''laranzu'' father, all Eduin can hear is a voice in his head demanding that he kill the Hasturs. He is taken in by a mysterious man named Saravio, who once served at Cedestri Tower, but left because of his opposition to The Compact.

Eduin discovers that Saravio has an odd ''laran'' talent – the ability to calm the mind of another by singing. This talent breaks one of the most important vows a tower worker takes – not to force his/her mind on another unwillingly. However, the singing quiets Eduin's internal demons, and he comes to believe he can exploit Saravio's gift to further his vengeance on the Hasturs. He also discovers that Saravio is obsessively devoted to Naotalba, the mythical wife of the god, Zandru.

Using Saravio's gift, Eduin whips up anti-Hastur sentiment among a group of unemployed and homeless men in Thendara.

### Book Two

''Leronis'' Dyannis Ridenow discovers a dangerous matrix operating at the bottom of Hali Lake. She and colleagues from Hali Tower explore the lake and discover the ancient foundations of the original Hali Tower, destroyed in nearly a thousand years earlier in an event known as The Cataclysm. They realize that a distant tower, Cedestri, is drawing power from the remnants of an ancient matrix in the lake to make ''laran'' weapons.

Hali Tower asks Dyannis' brother, Varzil, to join them in an effort to shut down Cedestri's activities. As the matrix circle starts its work, Eduin's mob arrives at Hali Lake and attacks. Dyannis summons an illusion in the form of a dragon, panicking the mob and causing injuries. The ''laranzu'in'' help as many as they can, but a few are beyond help, and die. Dyannis is consumed with guilt over her actions, though both Varzil and her Keeper acknowledge that she had little choice.

Varzil asks her to accompany him on a trip to persuade Cedestri Tower to join The Compact. As they near their objective, they witness the firebombing of Cedestri Tower by their long-time enemy, Isoldir. Varzil's party renders aid to the survivors, and is able to persuade Cedestri of the necessity of The Compact.

### Book Three

Eduin and Saravio leave Thendara to escape arrest after the riot at Hali Lake.

The mental voice of his father is a growing problem for Eduin, and his dependence on Saravio's singing grows daily. However, Saravio's increasing use of his gift is causing his own mental deterioration, and he now frequently lapses into multi-day comas. Eduin spurs him on with fake visions of the mythical Naotalba.

Upon arrival in the city of Kirella, they begin representing themselves as brothers, Eduardo Hernandez and Sandoval the Blessed. Eduin weasels his way into the court of Lord Brynon Aillard, whose daughter, Romilla, suffers from severe depression. After a few false starts, they are able to prove that Saravio's gift does indeed lighten Romilla's dark mood. They make an ally of Domna Mhari, the household ''leronis''.

### Book Four

Dyannis Ridenow returns to Hali Tower to take a leave of absence and return to her childhood home of Sweetwater. Her brother, Harald, does not understand his ''leronis'' sister, and without asking, arranges a marriage for her. Because of her guilt over the dragon incident (and several other events), she agrees to a marriage that she does not want.

Dyannis realizes her nephew, Lerrys, is suffering from Threshold Sickness, and needs the medical aid of a Tower. She persuades Harald that Lerrys must go to Hali. Once in Thendara, Harald realizes he has made a mistake, and seeks assistance from King Carolin to release Dyannis from her engagement. One of Harald's sisters-in-law is happily substituted for Dyannis and married off to Dom Tiavan Harryl.

Dyannis reveals to Varzil that the death of Felicia Leynier (described in ''Zandru's Forge'' ) at the hands of Eduin MacEarn may have been her fault. Dyannis tells Varzil that Eduin may have learned of Felicia's true identity from Dyannis' own mind. They both realize that Eduin must have some connection to the old war between King Deslucido and Queen Taniquel Hastur-Acosta, Felicia's mother, but the records are so ambiguous that they are unable to learn anything conclusive.

### Book Five

Lord Brynon Aillard and his party arrive in Valeron, where he must attend to the head of his domain, Queen Julianna of Aillard. She initially identifies Eduin and Saravio as preposterous fakes, but her ''leronis'', Callina Mallory persuades the queen that their gifts are real.

Eduin now sows his seeds of discord, claiming that Varzil the Good, working with Cedestri Tower, intends to attack Valeron. Meanwhile, Saravio suffers an almost complete mental and physical collapse. Eduin uses his abilities in the overworld to shape the mental image of Naotalba in an attempt to gain freedom from his father's mental curse. She demands a death, and Eduin agrees, thinking that she means the Hasturs.

Queen Julianna sends an attack against Hali Tower. Eduin, realizing that Dyannis will likely be killed in the attack (their relationship is detailed in ''Zandru's Forge''), asks Callina to allow him access to Valeron Tower so that he can warn Hali. Callina agrees, but only because she believes it will allow her to free herself from an ancient trap matrix in the tower, trapping Eduin instead. Her plan fails.

Eduin casts himself into the Overworld to warn Hali. With difficulty, he reaches Dyannis, only to discover that the warning is too late – the Tower is being consumed by clingfire. He casts aside his personal demons – both his father and Naotalba – and joins with Dyannis to broadcast to every other tower on Darkover the experience of Hali's death.

### Epilogue

One by one, the other Towers ratify The Compact, swearing neutrality in time of war and banning the making of ''laran'' weapons.

Greedy (film)

Joe McTeague is a wealthy, wheelchair-using scrap-metal tycoon who has to put up with his niece Patti, his nephews Carl, Frank, and Glen, and their respective spouses Ed, Nora, Nina, and Muriel. They usually named their kids after their uncle and continually suck up to him and try to outdo each other in order to inherit his 25 million dollars when he dies. With their attempts constantly failing and irritable Uncle Joe showing a decided interest in his new sexy "nurse" Molly Richardson, Frank decides to hire a private detective named Laura to bring in his brother Daniel (who turned his back on the family years ago because of their selfishness) believing if they can make up, Uncle Joe will thaw towards them.

Instead of finding Daniel, Laura finds his son Danny of whom Uncle Joe had always been especially fond. A professional bowler, Danny left the family with his father, but he accepts the cousins' invitation to return — after rolling a gutter ball in a big tournament and finding out that he has a pre-arthritic condition developing in his wrist.

Danny's television sports producer and girlfriend Robin encourages him to ask Uncle Joe for a loan of $300,000 to invest in a bowling alley. A typically rude and crude Joe says he will lend the money only if Danny sides with him against his own father. Danny is offended and leaves with his girlfriend, much to the annoyance of the other relatives. They confront Molly later on and she realizes just how conniving and desperate they are for Uncle Joe's fortune.

Uncle Joe asks Danny to visit him at his scrapyard, to apologize for trying to bribe him, but the old man calls a number to place a shipping order to a company he finds out has been closed for 25 years. Realizing that his relatives could declare him incompetent and throw him in a retirement home, he tells Danny that he plans to hand his fortune over to Molly. Danny realizes how much he'd like to inherit his fortune and tells him not to rush into anything.

Danny moves in with Uncle Joe and starts competing for his money, even so far as to sing a Jimmy Durante song that Joe loved him to perform as a little kid. But Molly has other ideas and decides to use her "assets" to outdo Danny and have sex with the elderly gentleman, if only to keep the relatives from getting his money. But after her successful attempt to get Joe in the bedroom, they are interrupted by Danny's father Daniel and he and Danny engage in an heated argument, in which Danny chooses Uncle Joe over him. Molly feels disgusted with herself for almost having sex with Joe and tells Danny she has to leave, but not before Danny promises to look after Joe. However, Danny tells Robin that he'd actually hired an actor to play his "so-called" father, to win favor with his Uncle, and she feels he's become too greedy and leaves him.

At Joe's attorney's office, Danny is ready to inherit Joe's fortune when his relatives arrive with his real father. Danny admits that he's become as bad as the rest of the family. But it soon becomes apparent that Uncle Joe is not only bankrupt, he is in debt of $95,000. After a big scene that involves Frank fighting Danny, the relatives leave and Joe tells Danny that he was simply "playing them" to find out who actually loved him. Danny tells him "nobody loves you" and leaves to make up with Robin. When Danny asks Joe's butler Douglas where Uncle Joe is, Douglas says that he doesn't know. Danny has a change of heart and realizes that no matter what Joe did to trick them, he's still family and loves him. He also tells Robin about it after getting her attention with holding a "He was broke" sign at a sporting event she was covering. Danny makes up with her.

With Joe's ill health, no money. and no place to go, Danny and Robin decide to let Joe stay with them in their apartment. But Joe gives them another surprise, and reveals that he still has a fortune and they see Molly and Douglas standing outside. He suggests they stay with him saying "Whatever I own, you own". Danny accepts on the condition that all of the lies and the games stop. Uncle Joe agrees and finishes his final lie by calmly getting off his wheelchair and exiting their apartment whilst a shocked Danny and Robin watch.

You're an Education

The literary characters spring to life in this "it's-midnight-and-everything-comes-to-life" cartoon, this time from brochures in a travel agency with first a bunch of tableaux, followed by a big song, then a crime story.

Following a spinning globe, the front of the agency store appears, where there are several displays of banners and posters of different countries and one poster/banner for each country and then a song is heard tied to the country or a pun on the name. For example, with a picture of Bombay harbor, exploding bombs are seen. There's a little tour of the world at first, with appropriate songs, which then stray into puns about food. "Food's an Education," which leads to references to Hungary, Turkey, the Sandwich Islands, Hamburg, Chile (chili), Oyster Bay, Twin Forks and Java. The Thief of Bagdad uses the Florida Keys to break into the Kimberly Diamond Mine, and then pawns them with the Pawnee Indians. He is chased by the soldiers and police of different nations, but gets away by forming an "unusual alliance" with the Lone Stranger: "Well, you're not alone now, Beeg Boy!"

Attack from Space

The superhero Starman, a human-like being created from the strongest steel by the Peace Council of the Emerald Planet, is sent by the leaders of that planet to protect Earth from belligerent aliens from the Sapphire Galaxy.

After avoiding the Sapphireans during his flight to Earth, Starman discovers their plot to destroy Earth, after they blow up a part of the Himalayas .

The Sapphireans (or "Spherions") kidnap Dr. Yamanaka and his family and force him to use his spaceship against the Earth.

It's up to Starman to save Dr. Yamanaka, his family and the Earth.

Julie Johnson (film)

Julie Johnson is a bored New Jersey housewife who is unhappy with her life and decides to take a computer class at a local college. When her husband finds out and is unsupportive and verbally abusive, she decides that enough is enough and the couple separate. Inspired, her friend Claire leaves her husband, and, having nowhere to go, moves in with Julie and her son and daughter. Living together, Julie and Claire develop a relationship that is more than just a friendship. Problems arise when Julie, immersed in studies, makes new, scholarly, cultured friends and Claire doesn't mesh well with them.

Look Homeward, Angel

The book is divided into three parts, with a total of forty chapters. The first 90 pages of the book deal with an early biography of Gant's parents, very closely based on the actual history of Wolfe's own mother and father. It begins with his father, Oliver's, decision to become a stone cutter after seeing a statue of a stone angel.

### Part One

The first marriage of Oliver Gant, father of the protagonist, Eugene, ends in tragedy, after which Oliver becomes an alcoholic; the battle with alcoholism remains the major struggle of his life. He eventually remarries, builds a new house, and starts a family. However, the couple is beset with tragedy: their first daughter dies of cholera in infancy, while two more babies die at birth. In the wake of these losses, a destabilized Oliver is sent to Richmond for a "cure" with little success. He returns home to abuse his family, at times threatening to kill his second wife Eliza (Eugene Gant's mother). The couple remain together, however, and have a total of six surviving children, the oldest born in 1894.

Eugene's birth follows a difficult labor during which his father, Oliver, is drunk downstairs. Nonetheless, Oliver Gant forms a special bond with his son, Eugene, from early on. He begins to get his drinking under control, with less frequent occasional binges, although his marriage becomes strained as Eliza's patience with him grows thinner. By the fifth chapter they are no longer sleeping in the same bedroom.

Despite his flaws, Oliver Gant is the family's keystone; he reads Shakespeare, has his daughter Helen read poetry, and keeps great fires burning in the house as symbols of warmth for the family. His gusto is the source of energy and strength for the family. Even his raging diatribes against his wife sustain the tempo of domestic life. When Eugene is six years old and starting to school, Oliver journeys to California for the last time, returning home to the joy of his family. Eugene's early education includes several clashes with teachers but he has a love of books and is bright, much to the pride of both his parents. His mother continues to baby him, unwilling to see him grow up; she does not cut his hair, even though he is teased about its length by the other boys.

### Part Two

Eugene wins a writing contest and is chosen to attend Altamont Fitting School. The school is run by John and Margaret Leonard. Here, Eugene begins his classical education. His mother, Eliza’s, boarding house, Dixieland, is paid off and she continues investing. Eugene’s siblings are traveling and experiencing both success and failure in their various undertakings. Oliver sells the stone angel to the owner of a local brothel. Eugene is ashamed by his first few sexual experiences. He is working at his brother, Ben’s, newspaper while continuing to study Shakespeare and Romantic poetry. WWI is underway. Ben is diagnosed with lung cancer in Baltimore. Despite the Leonard’s advice to wait, Eugene will attend UNC at Oliver’s insistence.

Part Two deals primarily with Eugene’s education, both scholastically and real life experience. He is taken up by the new school principal, John Dorsey Leonard and wife, Margaret. They form a college prep academy and add Eugene to the student population at the cost of $100 per year, grudgingly provided by Eliza. He learns the basics from them both, but is prompted by Margaret to immerse himself in poetry and ancient drama. He becomes a son to them both.

Oldest Gant son, Stevie, is a braggart and an enterprising entrepreneur, albeit with rotting, painful teeth. Younger son, Luke, minus the dental ailment, seems to be following in his footsteps, both hustlers and conmen. Kind, gentle, brooding brother, Ben, grows close to Eugene and looks out for him.

Owing to wise investments in the progression of town development, the Gants’ worth in 1912 is about $100,000. Oliver’s bouts with prostate problems culminate with aborted surgery when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Daughter Helen begins a career of touring and singing, drawing away from her closeness with Oliver. Eliza permanently moves to Dixieland, her boarding house. Gant sells one of his angels as a tomb monument.

Two extended segments involve stream of consciousness potpourris of various town types passing by the observer, one in a local bar and one in a walk about the town. WWI begins, but Ben is rejected physically. Eugene has a chaperoned holiday in Charleston and nearly loses his virginity. He participates as Prince Hal in a botched Shakespearean festival. Helen marries Hugh Barton.

Oliver states he will finance Eugene’s college education, but only at the State University, to the chagrin and disappointment of the Leonards.

### Part Three

Eugene begins his education at UNC as a teenage boy, alienated and out of place. He becomes the butt of practical jokes by the older fellow students. He works hard to become active in extracurricular activities including the debate club and philosophy association. After his freshman year, Eugene's summer back in Altamont is marked by him falling in love with a 21-year-old tenant—Laura James—at his mother's boarding house. Eugene became obsessed with Laura and at the end of the summer, she tells him that she is engaged to be married to a man in Norfolk, Virginia. Eugene falls into a funk which haunts him for another two years. W.O. undergoes radiation treatments at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore because the Gant family operates with a conviction that only that medical institution was qualified to provide competent health care. (When Wolfe himself became ill in 1938, the family insisted he be sent to Baltimore to receive treatment at the only facility the Wolfe family trusted.) Eugene returns to UNC and becomes very involved in academic activities including serving as the editor of the school newspaper, the literary magazine, and the poetry publication. He joins a drama writer's seminar and achieves acclaim. His reputation on campus was a humorous eccentric which in turn made him funnier and more beloved. However, below this outward image was a young man who was intensely sensitive, lonely, and hyper-emotional. In the spring of 1918, his roommate unexpectedly died of heart disease, throwing Eugene into another funk. Then in the summer of 1918, Eugene worked at the shipyards at Norfolk, hoping to earn extra money for the upcoming school year, but instead turns into a nightmare with him living homeless and famished for most of the summer. After returning to UNC in the fall of 1918, he is summoned by his mother to come home immediately because brother Ben is in a near coma with pneumonia. Thomas Wolfe's biographer Elizabeth Nowell said Wolfe's description of Ben's death was the finest writing of his career. Eugene returns to UNC and completes his studies. His mentor, English professor Vergil Weldon, modeled after Wolfe's mentor Horace Williams, encourages Eugene to apply to Harvard for graduate studies. He tells his mother of his plans; she begs him to remain in North Carolina and work for a newspaper. Eugene tells Eliza that he has a destiny elsewhere and that he cannot be boxed in by a small mountain town in North Carolina.

Doctor X (film)

''Daily World'' newshawk Lee Taylor is investigating a series of pathological murders that have taken place over a series of months in New York City. The murders always take place at night, under the glow of a full moon, and each body has been cannibalized after the murder. Witnesses describe a horribly disfigured "monster" as the killer.

Doctor Xavier is called in for his medical opinion, but the police have an ulterior motive. They want to investigate Xavier's medical academy, as the scalpel used to cannibalize the bodies of the victims is exclusive to that institution. Aside from Xavier, the other suspects are: Wells, an amputee who has made a study of cannibalism; Haines, who displays a sexual perversion with voyeurism; Duke, a grouchy paralytic; and Rowitz, who is conducting studies of the psychological effects of the moon.

The police give Xavier 48 hours to apprehend the killer in his own way. During this time, reporter Taylor investigates the doctor's intentions and in the process, meets Joanne Xavier, the doctor's daughter. Joanne is exceedingly cold to Taylor, particularly after finding out that it was his story that pointed a finger at her father and ruined his first attempt at locating the killer. Taylor takes a romantic interest in Joanne, despite her strong dislike of his investigative behavior.

At Xavier's beach-side estate, all of the suspects gather for an unorthodox experiment. Each member is being investigated except Wells, because the killer has two hands and Wells has but one. Each man is connected to an electrical system that records his heart rate. When a re-enactment of the murder of the cleaning woman appears before them, the detector will expose the guilty man. Dr. Xavier's butler and maid, Otto and Mamie, carry out the reenactment.

During the experiment, a blackout occurs. When power is regained, it is discovered that Rowitz, whose monitor supposedly revealed him as the guilty party just before the blackout, has been murdered by use of a scalpel to the brain. Later that night, it is discovered that Rowitz's body has been cannibalized.

The following evening, Xavier asks Otto and Mamie to re-enact another of the murders. Mamie is too frightened to play her part, so Joanne takes her place. All of the men, save for Wells, are this time handcuffed to their seats, and the doors locked to keep Wells at the recording cabinet. It is during this that we find out that it is, in fact, Wells who is the killer, entering a secret laboratory where he transforms himself with "synthetic flesh" into the monstrous Moon Killer, then entering the experiment room through a secret panel. After strangling Otto, Wells reveals to his handcuffed "guests" that he's invented a "synthetic flesh" composition, and has been creating artificial limbs and a horrific mask to carry out his crimes, in order to collect living samples of human flesh for his experiments. He then declares his intention to collect Joanne as his victim.

As Wells is about to strangle Joanne, Taylor – concealed among a series of wax figures representing the killer's victims – jumps Wells. After an extended fight, Taylor hurls a kerosene lamp at Wells, setting him on fire. Wells crashes through a window and falls down a cliff in flames to the ocean shore below. Reporting his story into the paper, Taylor tells his editor to make space in the marriage section for Joanne and himself.

Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin

The book is written by nineteenth century author, wizardologist Merlin purporting to have written the material in ink (needs clarification on what it was actually written in).

The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal

Commander Suzdal is a captain of "The Navy and the Instrumentality" sent on a "one man" mission of exploration (in actuality he is accompanied by several generations of "Turtle-People"). He hibernates in cryogenic sleep while long-lived turtle underpeople run the ship, until the need for a "true human" arises.

A deep space probe is found. It tells a brilliantly conceived but utterly false story about the plight of a group of settlers calling themselves the Arachosians. Suzdal is deceived and turns his ship towards the planet Arachosia and reenters hibernation.

When he arrives he learns the horrible truth. The original settlers nearly became extinct, succumbing to a plague that (in Smith's words) rendered "femininity carcinogenic." They were only able to save their women by chemically (and later genetically) making them male. However, the resulting society is deeply unbalanced by the lack of females and ordinary family structure. The Arachosians, not truly male or female and calling themselves "klopts", realize on an instinctive level what they are missing and as a result, hate normal human beings with unbridled fervor and regard them as abominations to be destroyed (even though they have not seen one in many generations). To carry out this plan, they have dispatched traps in the form of messages, such as the one Suzdal encountered, throughout the galaxy.

When Suzdal wakes up, the Arachosians are already crawling over the outside of his ship. On the advice of an artificial security officer, he uses an emergency device intended to send his large spacecraft back a few seconds in time to instead hurl feline genetic material (coded to evolve for intelligence and to obey Suzdal) millions of years back on the far side of the local moon. A race of advanced, space-faring cat-descendants appears instantaneously and hail Suzdal as their god and creator. They engage the Arachosians at his order, allowing him to escape.

Despite saving the ship and successfully concealing Earth's location from the Arachosians, Suzdal is stripped of rank, name, life and finally death, finding himself sentenced to the prison planet Shayol for his misuse of the time device. He is later seen in the story "A Planet Named Shayol". Meanwhile the Instrumentality officially declares all accounts of his story to be lies, including the text at hand.

Interview (2007 film)

Pierre Peders (Buscemi) is a tough political correspondent infuriated by his editor's insistence he cover a tabloid-level story about the paparazzi favorite Katya (Miller). Pierre's chagrin increases given the news of a searing White House scandal that is just breaking; instead of covering the piece, Peders must visit a posh Manhattan restaurant and interview Katya, whom he instantly detests. The one-on-one is more of a disaster than either could have predicted, but by some strange twist of fate, Pierre is injured and brought back to Katya's loft. Once there, liquor is downed, cocaine is consumed, minor violence erupts, and the two begin to "dance a pas de deux" — attempting, not so subtly, to outmaneuver one another psychologically, as dark secrets and long-hidden vulnerabilities emerge.

Katya teases Peders into kissing her, which Peders passionately does, but as her cell phone rings and reality reasserts itself, Katya demands that he stop. Peders is exasperated and complains that she doesn't let him finish what she starts, unlike the male prostitute he once visited. During another of Katya's phone calls, Peders uses Katya's laptop and opens a folder containing what he believes is Katya's diary. He is able to barely conceal his surprise when Katya eyes him suspiciously, by saying he is merely Googling her, as per an earlier suggestion by her.

When Katya's attention returns to her phone call, Peders e-mails a particularly expressive and emotional diary passage to himself. Later, unable to forget what he had read, Peders betrays his snooping by asking Katya what has made her lose hope. After an emotional outburst about her loss of privacy, she admits that she has cancer. At this, Peders is immediately contrite about the way he has been treating her. He learns that no one knows about Katya's illness; she feels that saying it aloud will make it more "real". Peders promises not to reveal the truth about her health; Katya demands that Peders reveal something about himself in return.

As Katya films the confession with a camcorder, Peders admits that, as a reporter, he has made up stories and sources, and that he essentially caused his alcoholic former wife's death. (He took his time responding to her distress call to him - by the time he arrived, she was already dead.) Katya swaps out the camcorder tape when Peders is unaware, and a while later, Peders attempts to do the same. On a clandestine phone call to his editor, Peders - against his promise to Katya - tells him that Katya has cancer. Peders leaves Katya's loft, and as he is walking outside, she calls him on his cell phone.

Katya reveals that not only did she lie about having cancer, (the diary Peders believed was hers was actually the diary of the character she played) but she has Peders' confessional tape. She inquires whether she should send it to his editor first or the police. Peders smugly retorts that he swapped the tape first; Katya disagrees and says he only has her rehearsal tape. The movie ends with Peders and Katya watching their tapes - Peders wearing a sullen expression. Katya sips a glass of wine while watching Peders' confessional tape, but it is unknown if she will follow through with her threat.

Rest Stop (film)

Jess picks up his girlfriend, Nicole, to head out to California in his convertible. On the way, Nicole complains she needs to urinate, and she urges Jess to find a rest stop. After exiting the building, she finds her boyfriend gone. A deranged truck driver throws her the red cell phone from the convertible, convincing her he has Jess. Nicole goes to look for help, notices an RV, bangs on the door, and asks for help. She has a short eerie ride with the passengers until she is eventually thrown out for looking at the deformed individual hidden in the back of the vehicle.

She then returns to the restroom, where she hears a girl coughing up blood (Tracy) with cuts all over whimpering in the maintenance room. She cautions Nicole about the deranged killer who tortured her. The girl then bleeds profusely, and as Nicole's attention is diverted, she disappears, blood and all. Nicole finds Tracy's missing person poster and discovers the girl has been missing since 1971.

The man in the yellow truck eludes Nicole until a motorcycle cop arrives. The cop soon falls victim to the driver of the yellow truck by being run over, his legs broken. Nicole drags the officer to the restroom to seek refuge. Eventually, truck driver returns and locks Nicole and the officer in the restroom. When Nicole, attempts to open the lock to escape, the driver reappears and bites off Nicole's finger. The officer realizes that Nicole is going into shock and commands Nicole to shoot the driver when he returns. She fires four shots out of the officer's revolver into the door but cannot see if she hit the driver. The driver then drops a camera into the restroom via the open window. The video has Jess tortured with a knife, eventually showing his tongue getting cut out. The driver feeds a hose through the window and starts pouring gasoline into the room. Nicole tries to find an escape and is able to open a hatch in the ceiling. Realizing there is no way for her to get him out of the building, the officer tells Nicole to use the two remaining bullets to kill him rather than being burned alive, and she does. The driver lights the gasoline, and Nicole hurries to get out of the building. As Nicole escapes, she notices that the officer's body has mysteriously disappeared. Nicole jumps from the roof before the building explodes.

Once she is on the ground, Nicole encounters the man in the yellow truck once again. He exits the truck, and she repeatedly strikes him with a tire iron. She turns him over and is shocked to discover it is Jess, with his mouth sewn shut. Nicole sneaks to the convertible, where she fills a whiskey bottle that she had retrieved from a nearby Park Ranger's station and fills it with gasoline to concoct a makeshift Molotov cocktail to use against her attacker, should he return.

Morning approaches, and she walks down the highway with the truck driver approaching her at a rapid speed. After some fumbling, she is able to strike a match and light her Molotov. She hurls the bottle at the truck, and almost instantly, it is consumed by flames, followed by a large explosion. She investigates the truck but finds nobody. After a few moments, she turns around, and the man in the truck is behind her.

The film ends with a different girl going to the same rest stop after being renovated due to the fire. She discovers Nicole in the maintenance room and runs out to the Park Ranger (who has returned to his post) to inform him of her discovery. After unlocking it, he goes into the room, and no one seems to be present. After he leaves, Nicole is shown behind some janitorial equipment calling out for help and vomiting blood.

The next scene is from the view of a video camera. It shows the father from the RV burying Jess' body. The man, realizing he is being taped, goes into the RV and tells his deformed son, "This is our little secret." The yellow truck then drives down a deserted road.

Invaders from Space

The story involves the superhero Starman who is sent by the Emerald Planet to protect Earth from the Salamander Men of the planet Kulimon in the Moffit galaxy who plan to destroy Earth.

Lover Come Back (1961 film)

In a New York advertising agency, Jerry Webster, a Madison Avenue ad executive, has achieved success not through hard work or intelligence but by wining and dining his clients, even setting them up on dates with attractive girls.

Jerry's equal and sworn enemy at a rival agency is Carol Templeton. Although she has never met him, Carol is disgusted by Jerry's unethical tactics and reports him to the Ad Council. Jerry avoids trouble with his usual aplomb, sending a comely chorus girl, Rebel Davis, to seduce the council members.

In exchange for her cooperation, Jerry promised Rebel a spot in commercials, so he goes ahead and arranges shoots of some featuring her for "VIP", a nonexistent product. He has no intention of allowing them to be shown, but the perplexed company president, Pete Ramsey, orders them broadcast on television.

This means Jerry must come up with a product quickly. So, he bribes a chemist, Dr. Linus Tyler, to create one. When Carol mistakes Jerry for Tyler, he pretends to be the chemist, so that in her attempt to steal the account from Jerry, she is actually wining, dining, golfing, and frolicking at the beach with him as Tyler.

Carol ultimately learns the truth. Appalled, she once more reports him to the Ad Council, this time for promoting a product that does not exist. Jerry, however, arrives at the hearing with VIP, a mint-flavored candy Dr. Tyler has just created. He provides many free samples to everyone there, including Carol.

VIP turns out to be intoxicating, each piece having the same effect as a triple martini. Its extreme effects lead to a one-night stand between Carol (who has a low tolerance for alcohol) and her bitter rival, Jerry, in a motel in Maryland, complete with a marriage license.

Carol has the marriage annulled. Representatives from the liquor industry visit Jerry, saying he will be paid well to pull VIP off the market and destroy the formula. Jerry convinces them to give Carol's firm 25% of its $60 million ($ million today) annual advertising expenditures, then burns the formula. He leaves New York to work in his company's San Francisco branch—only to be called back nine months later to remarry Carol in a hospital maternity ward, just before she gives birth to their child.

Atom Man vs. Superman

Lex Luthor, the Atom Man, invents a number of deadly devices to plague the city, including a disintegrating machine which can reduce people to their basic atoms and reassemble them in another place. But Superman manages to thwart each scheme. Since Kryptonite can rob Superman of his powers, Luthor decides to create a synthetic Kryptonite and putters about obtaining the necessary ingredients: plutonium, radium and the undefined 'etc.' Luthor places the Kryptonite at the launching of a ship, with Superman in attendance. He is exposed to the Kryptonite and passes out. Superman is taken off in an ambulance driven by Luthor's henchmen, and he is now under the control of Luthor. Superman is placed in a device, a lever is pulled, and the Man of Steel vanishes into "The Empty Doom".

Less Than Zero (film)

Clay Easton is a straight-laced college freshman on the East Coast of the United States, who returns home to Los Angeles for Christmas to find things very different from the way he left them. His high school girlfriend and now model, Blair, has become addicted to cocaine and has been having sex with Clay's high school best friend, Julian Wells. Julian, whose life has gone downhill after his startup record company fell apart, has become a drug addict. He has also been cut off by his family for stealing to support his habit and reduced to homelessness. Julian is also being hassled by his dealer, a former classmate named Rip, for a debt of $50,000 that he owes to him.

Clay's relationship with Blair rekindles and Julian's behavior becomes more volatile. His addiction is worsening and since he does not have the money to pay off his debt, Rip forces him to become a prostitute to work it off. After suffering through a night of overdose and hiding from Rip, Julian decides to quit and begs his father to help him. The next day, Julian tells Rip his plans for sobriety, which Rip does not accept. Rip soon lures Julian to a Christmas party for affluent gay men in Palm Springs. Clay finds Julian and rescues him; after a violent confrontation with Rip and his henchman, Clay, Julian and Blair all escape and begin the long drive through the desert so Julian can attempt to achieve sobriety once and for all. However, the damage has already been done; the next morning Julian dies from heart failure in the car.

After Julian's funeral, Clay and Blair are sitting on a cemetery bench reminiscing about him. Clay then tells Blair that he is returning to the East Coast and wants her to go with him. She agrees to his offer. The film ends with a snapshot of the three of them at graduation.